Painting has been one of the most important types of art for centuries, and many hardworking artists are exploring its boundaries and possibilities to this very day. One of these artists is Jhonie van Boeijen, who transforms paint into fotorealistic tableaus. We met up with her in her studio to get to know more about her and her work.
"To be honest with you, I have never really known what I wanted to be in life other than that I wanted to dedicate my life to painting. After high school I signed up for the education in Decoration and Restoration, where I was mostly interested in the decorational part of it. I doubted for a while whether or not I would try to study Restoration in Antwerp, but that would mean that I would dedicate the rest of my life to fixing up other people's work, and that's something I won't sign up for. In 2012 I started studying Fine Arts at the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (HKU). The first year was quite tough for me personally, since I don't have a background in the arts, but the school was very accommodating when it comes to that. During the education you discover all sorts of new possibilities and you learn a lot of new ideas and ways of thinking. It was at the HKU that I got to know about photorealism and from there onwards it has been my primary point of focus. After my bachelor studies I took a gap year before I ended up enrolling into the Master Painting at the Frank Mohr Institute. One of my main motivators for studying there was because I really wanted to go on an exchange to America and the Frank Mohr Institute was one of the few places that offered these opportunities to its students. When I was in Los Angeles I studied photorealism and I also got to know some of the original veterans of photorealism, such as Don Eddy.
At the moment many of my paintings are about consumerism and the strange relationship we have with it. For me personally there is another layer to the discussion because I grew up in the toy store of my parents. During my childhood I have always been surrounded by promotional offers, commercials, stickers and bright colours. This definitely shaped the way that I look at consumerism, as well as the time I spent in America. During my exchange I came upon these massively large supermarkets, filled to the brim with stuff that we only know from television and films. It is a strange sensation to stand there and to actually hold these items in your hands. You know everything, yet you have never been there before. It's pretty much like stepping onto a film set or entering a simulation. Which brings me back to photorealism because it is this experience that plays an important role in the medium. It also warps and plays with reality and what it simulates.
“I look around in the supermarkets to see what other people are buying and then I go and buy the very same items.”
Because of my experiences in the USA I started thinking about what our groceries mean to us and what they say about us as a person. To what degree can we tell something about our identity and our zeitgeist through what we buy? The groceries that I am currently painting are based on the groceries of other people. I look around in the supermarkets to see what other people are buying and then I go and buy the very same items. At the studio I will throw them all in a bag, give it a good shake and then I start making hundreds of photos of them with all different lighting and compositions. From the selected photos I start to make a small sketch to make a composition. After that I will transfer the photos manually onto some paper and then I will cut and paste the pieces until I am satisfied. When all of this is done I will transfer it onto a canvas and then the real painting process can start. Usually I am at the studio five to six days a week. The paintings are very detailed and one painting will take me months to complete. It might go quicker if I were to use projectors and an airbrush like most photorealistic painters but that's something I really don't want to do. I curse myself every so often because sometimes even the smallest brush is too big to capture the detail you are trying to paint, but it's fun to find a solution for these kinds of problems. Sometimes I am just an old fashioned painter that just wants to use a paintbrush for everything."
You can find Jhonie van Boeijen's work in our Art Rental Collection. She also has her own website: jhonievanboeijen.com.