Kees van Citters - Abstract: The Garden of Vignes

Kees van Citters, born in Heemstede in 1966, has been intensively involved with painting since his secondary school days. He has lived and worked as an independent visual artist in Haarlem since 1985. During the summer months, Van Citters can be found behind his easel in the woods and dunes. The paintings he creates there have a strong impressionistic character. In his studio, he paints subjects such as ballet and music in a precise style. The subject of a painting is very important to him. Together with the painting technique and the materials and colors used, it is a crucial ingredient for the story he wants to tell with a work of art. Music and ballet are two cherished metaphors for Van Citters.

The painting shown in the photo is an abstract. It is a relief of upright stripes covered with linen soaked in acrylic paint, the painter states. Although the stripes are upright, you could hang the painting in four different ways; consequently, the stripes appear horizontal in two of those ways. The work measures 80 x 89 cm, and the thickness is three cm in some places and five cm in others, depending naturally on the stripes incorporated into the background, which therefore also have a relief thickness of their own. Despite its monumental use of materials, it is a cheerful painting.