• Piet van de Werken (Born in 1978). Living and works in Sleeuwijk (The Netherlands).
• Education: Rietveld Kunstacademie en St. Joost School of Art & Design ( 1999-2003)

For as long as I can remember, I have felt the need to create. My earliest memories revolve around the act of making things. As time passed, my creativity became focused on the activities of drawing and painting, which eventually became second nature to me. The process occurs instinctively, almost impulsively. Perhaps this explains why I conduct minimal to no research before embarking on a painting. At most, I create a quick sketch outlining a potential composition of elements en perspective. I do not engage in research- based art, since my research unfolds during the act of painting; the painting itself serves as the research. My artworks center around the act of painting; they do not narrate a story. The intricacies lie within the surface and the various layers of a painting. 

While painting, I devote as much time to reflecting on what I have painted as I do to the act of painting itself. Similar to how absence can create an image, the subject can be defined by what is not present. Absence in every sense holds significant importance in my paintings. 

The most prominent absence is the complete lack of people. However, it does not depict a dark, post-apocalyptic (dystopian), setting with vanished individuals. On the contrary, it is a bright and colorful absence, almost serving as an ideal, with only the viewer of the painting as the observer. 

Both absence and loneliness are a recurring themes. Painting, being an inherent solitary activity, embodies a sense of loneliness. The theme of absence extends to the people who are missing from my life, including my own absent-mindedness and daydreaming. It encompasses what is currently absent and what has been absent in the past. This includes the absence of a home and the absence of love. Absence is the one constant that is always present, much like the enduring presence on loneliness.