‘2008: I have always wanted to make “openings/transparencies” even in my surrealistic period (before 1979) there were parts missing from the fence so you could peep through. There is always an opening somewhere, also in the transparency of the colours and in the openness of the vision. And the light! You have to be able to see something behind the vision, more than you can actually see in the painting. Transparency and layers that’s what I am looking for.’
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Quotes of Daan Lemaire
2008: I am always busy working on a new painting/work. I can’t say that the work I produce does anything to me, or works its way into me. I am just busy with the object. Perhaps because everything I do is more gradual than with Fons or you (Albert de Wilde), it’s less apparent in my work. Mine are smaller steps and yours’ are giant leaps.
2008: I actually don’t think my paintings are so abstract, there is often a natural element such as water or sky. Fons (Heijnsbroek) is the most abstract painter I know, he is purely abstract if you can say that. There is always a certain natural reference in my paintings, as that gives me a certain support.
2008: I don’t know where my work comes from, I don’t really want to think about it, that’s just not me. It all just happens and I am serious about it. It’s my life. And I’ve been lucky. I am appreciated; I’m financially secure, as though time and again life treats us well (he and his wife).
2008: I don’t mean anything in particular with my work, I have no particular message for the world. I don’t think my work has any special meaning. I just want to paint as honestly as I can. I only allow work to exist that I, myself, think have the necessary integrity.
2008: I enjoy painting my recent gouaches (from 2006) much more than I used to. It’s liberating, there is lots of space. I hope that others see that in my work, but I experience it anyway. It is less confined in a form, more direct, more spontaneous, more open and it has conviction. I really feel it’s got something and this seems to be confirmed by the reactions of others. So it really must be there. I now have so much enjoyment from painting and I’m no longer worried by what other people think. Gradually I have gained a form of confidence from within. If people can see that in the paintings then that’s stimulating for both sides.
2008: My recent gouaches from 2005 have become beautifully spontaneous, with lots of spatters on the paper. In spite of the spontaneity there is still a construction, coming into the corners or directions of vision or areas I purposely leave open. I have found a form of confidence. The years before (2005) I was always in doubt about my work. I felt insecure about my work and felt a lack of support or grip. Now and then there was a good painting in there but since 2005 I have made whole series of works that I think are good. Fewer works are discarded because I spend more time and attention on one work. I look at it a lot and it’s in my head when I’m reading at home. Then I add a few small things in a corner, because I had it in my mind’s eye all day.
2008: In 1989 I wanted to paint as light as possible, preferably almost without colour, completely white. I painted a couple of canvases (in oil). I wanted to see how far I could go. Until 2005 my work was stricter than now, I constructed more and the colour was much lighter. They were the last parts of my ‘Block Period’ (especially oils). It was more ‘contrived’ more constructed and more intentionally composed. After that, about 2002, I painted natural objects in oils, at that time I was inspired by Monet, who I had been unable to appreciate before. During that period I found great support from Monet’s work. I was already painting more spontaneously but the natural object itself gave me more support, trees, a garden. That developed on its own, the arboreal, natural atmosphere. Some of my recent gouaches have the same feeling: water and currents.
2008: So I start with an empty canvas. For instance – the first yellow is soon applied, but I don’t want it to be too definite, that’s too mean. The first yellow demands other colours, ‘Spielerei’ but not real Spielerei: I want to hold open all possibilities while I’m painting.
1993: I start my painting very thinly, then slightly thicker and so on… It must remain open, that way I’m not tying myself down. I always start very white and gradually work to darker. My paint is applied in thin strokes so that it remains transparent. The transparency ensures that I maintain a space. The strong colours I save for the last moment.
1993: I use colour to evoke an atmosphere and increase depth. I always start with quite a neutral colour. Only later when the canvas becomes more concrete do I put down stronger colours. White softens the colour, I always mix them with white because otherwise the colour becomes too strong and then the painting becomes too ‘decisive’. I want to keep the painting open, even when it’s finished. Really I think I’d like to paint white on white.
1993: I really want to go further than the background. Behind that there is another one and another one. So I don’t want to decide too much either behind or to the front. I am looking for an entrance to a deeper layer and want to avoid any “enclosing”.
1993: The tones in my work develop during the painting, it is not something I am conscious of. I use it to create depth, tension or atmosphere. You could say I go a bit further than painting white into white. There has to be a little more spirituality. If the emphasis of the tone on a canvas is too heavy, it means that too much is being decided, then I can’t do anything more. I am searching for transparency, there must be an opening to something else and it all has to do with the tone.
1993: The composition is entirely intuitive. You can say ‘I need to create a balance so I need to put a bit of red there on the left’. But that is using your mind. When I paint everything just happens of it’s own accord, intuitively.