Sources: Traditional 17th-century painting practice & living materials
Zomerschoon (1620), Fritillaria meleagris and Forget-me-not. Oil on wood panel
The work is informed by sustained study of 17th-century Dutch still life painting, including primary sources from the Netherlands and contemporary academic literature on material history, horticulture, and pigment use. The intention is not reconstruction for its own sake, but continuity of method: allowing historical practice to remain materially present within this contemporary work.
A note for collectors:
The historical methods are used because they give the work depth, rarity, and material continuity. Each painting carries both visual refinement and a documented connection to 17th century Dutch still-life practice, botanical history, and traditional craft.
This approach has permanence over immediacy in mind. Each painting is conceived as a lasting object rather than a decorative image.
Manuscripts, pigments and materials
The paintings are developed using historically grounded techniques drawn from Dutch sources of the 1600s. Pigments are selected to be chemically identical to those used by painters of the Dutch Golden Age and are sourced internationally to match historical formulations. Materials are prepared with attention to durability, surface integrity, and long-term stability, with methods chosen for their proven capacity to endure.
Living materials: Dutch heritage tulips, fruit, birds, and insects
Tulips
The heritage tulips, as living materials, are grown specifically for the work. The artist maintains a collection of Dutch heritage tulips, sourced in collaboration with specialists and conservators in the Netherlands, spanning varieties from the late 16th century through the early 20th century. Among these is the Zomerschoon tulip (1620), believed to be the only surviving example of a mosaic-virus–affected cultivar associated with the striped tulips of the 17th century.
These plants are cultivated as working material for still life compositions. The resulting paintings function, in part, as documents of botanical forms no longer present in the contemporary landscape.
To view the tulip and fritillary collection, click here.
Fruit, insects and birds
Fruit depicted in the work is likewise grown, or sourced from heritage farmers, for study and observation. Insects and birds are studied and documented in gardens, zoos, and entomological and taxidermy collections.
Museum study
Study of masterpieces held in museum collections worldwide.
Framing
The artist collaborates with a selected number of craftspeople to produce bespoke quality frames. Using research publications (e.g., Prijst de Lijst) historically accurate replica frames are made for a number of paintings.