The title, Topeng Toepong is deliberately a bit like Indonesian. Topeng means mask, Toepong is a word I made up and thus means nothing, but rhymes a bit.
Masks have interested me for much of my life. Their simplicity but at the same time enormous expressiveness has always fascinated me. The middle part of the work is based on a picture of an Indonesian mask.
Topeng Toepong was first set up with pencil, some parts were drawn by hand like the eyes, others using compasses and various stencils. For the circles, compasses and circle templates of all sizes were used.
When I am satisfied with the outline in pencil, the colouring in begins, and this is done in layers. I start with coloured pencils, then all kinds of colouring pens, brush pencils and pens are used.
To achieve a nice whole, you can see that colour contrasts are used here. Green/blue and red/orange-like shades are each other's opposites, but also complement each other at the same time, making all colours in the work more expressive. The eyes are deliberately left white to make them stand out more.
This work fits well on an empty wall in a quiet or austere interior.
As a child, I could spend hours drawing at the kitchen table at home. Later in life, I enjoyed years of artistic training and although I learnt a lot, at some point I detached myself from wanting to conform to artistic dogma because it hindered me. I.. Read more…