All posts in Artist Residency

16Oct2018

So this is how “out of comfortzone” feels like. Artist Residency week 2.

In Art, Artist Residency by AnV / 16/10/2018 / Comments are closed

April 10, tue

Everything is ready, let’s start week 2. I’m totally in to it. Last night I made pigment paste at home.
I’m starting to see it, the structures. I think I need a little red spot, to go with the brown. I’m glad my head is clear right now. I really needed a long weekend off. I was complete, completely messed up. Shaken.

pigmentpasta chabon de beringen

What a bustle today. There has been a film crew here almost all afternoon. They were preparing recordings at the end of this month, so I’ll probably have to pack my things for 2 days, boooo. Nevertheless, I have worked hard, my painting has changed seriously. It has grown, but I am not content yet. Something has to happen. Coal, or red, or white, or …?

Painting in progress by An Vanderlinden

April 11, wed

Whoohoo, I asked for coal today, so Jan came this afternoon and guided me into the coal washing plant. That’s an area where I’m not allowed to go into by myself, because it’s not safe. Parts of the floor suffer from concrete rot. We collected 2 different sizes coal.

local coal from Beringen

April 12, thu

There were already 2 groups of visitors this morning while I was still setting up my stuff. It’s really something special, painting in a museum. I don’t feel comfortable, so I hide myself behind my studio easels whenever I hear people.

BTW, if you want to pay a visit to this wonderful mining heritage yourself: I can highly recommend it! Visit www.mijnmuseum.be for all info.

Schilder An Vanderlinden in mijnmuseum Beringen.

April 13, fri

Painting is not going very well at this moment. I’m working on matte/shiny today, but I’m not getting the results I hoped for. The product I use to mattify my paint, looks matte in one direction, but very white in the other one.

Painting in progress, artist An Vanderlinden

The strokes I made while testing my coal pigment with different acrylic binders, come in very handy as color charts to determine what version of my coalpaint I want to use. I love this warm brown color.

coalpaint development by An Vanderlinden

coal paint development by An Vanderlinden - Charbon de Beringen

April 14, sa

Today I lay my new easel flat for the first time: sweeeet! That’s really handy! I like the tray too, in which I can put my pots of coal whithout being able to bump them on the ground. Blissfull, just like the sun in my back.

Roundup Artist Residency week 2

I start feeling at ease. Not quite there yet, but it starts. My work is going a bit better, but not as it should be. Glad with the progression I made this week: I now have a translucent mat paint that does not turn white. I am relieved.

A few days ago I started a second painting. The structures in the first one were getting on my nerves, I needed to set it aside.

AnV painting in progress in Beringen Mijn

Occasionally I’m enjoying it here. Still not comfortable, but it starts. I’m a bit shy, I hide myself everytime a group of visitors enters. It’s so weird.
AnV.be op de losvloer in Beringen Mijn

07Oct2018

About having cold, and chaos in my head: Artist Residency week 1

In Art, Artist Residency by AnV / 07/10/2018 / Comments are closed

Tue, april 3

11h: TADAAA. Here I am :-) A hell of a headache and I’ve already got cold hands, but I’m fully installed now, and I’ve put the first brush strokes on canvas in this former mine building. HOORAY! :-)

14h: It seems that I’ve chosen a heavy draft hole to install myself. I feel the wind blowing in my back. It’s only 12° outside. This weekend the temperature will go up they say, yippie.

It creaks and drips on all sides here and I think it’s all great :-). So beautiful here. Occasionally the sun comes to squeak for a moment, and then it is really awesome. And I like the pigeons :-) Picasso also had some in his studio :-). Reassuring too, all those white feathers on the floor. It is so beautiful here.

Wed, april 4

To look around is almost the only thing I’m doing here. I look, and I listen. It is impossible to grasp. It is so … so great. I can’t understand. Even my thoughts stop. I can only watch. Absorb. I think this is awe.
I am overwhelmed.
So many lines to follow, so many shades to see, so many …. SO much!
Everything.
Every inch…

Look, I’ve got a room with a view :-).

Thu, april 5

DAMN it is cold today. 8° and regularly a shower. I installed myself in a draft hole, the cold wind is constantly blowing in my back. I wear 5 layers of clothes. And a scarf. Still cold. 8° early April. Oh well, I’m doing this to my myself… :-).
At least I’ve got electricity now, so I can make some coffee to warm myself up.

An Vanderlinden op de losvloer, 5 april 2018

Kunstschilder An Vanderlinden in be-MINE, april 4

Fri, april 6

Some things are meant to be. I discovered this on the wall of the depot where I store my stuff. “Writing on the wall” is not always a bad thing :-)

This is where I put everything at night, just to be sure. I’m not the only person who loves this building…. That’s also the reason why I don’t post a thing about this while I’m here. I’ll wait until all my stuff is back home.

Roundup Artist Residency week 1:

Chaos in my head
chaos on my canvas
but it will be fine
I am beginning to see structures

01Oct2018

The start of my Artist Residency: about a moving elevator and Easter eggs

In Art, Artist Residency by AnV / 01/10/2018 / Comments are closed

Ingang be-MINE, 21 maart 2018 Today, with a half-year delay, I begin to tell the story of my Artist Residency, as announced earlier. I made paintings with my coalpaint and coal, in a building of the former coal mine of Beringen, Belgium. Every week you can read a weekly report here.

April 1

My official residency period starts today, but it’s Easter … Not an ideal day to start, so as a good Belgian, I’m going to eat chocolate eggs with my parents.

But a lot has happened …
In the months that preceded, I ordered large canvases to paint on, and a moving elevator to get them on the spot. Especially the latter worried me. The place where I’ll work is located 16 meters above the ground. A big gate had to be opened to let them in. I was worried that something would go wrong, and that caused a lot of stress. I had my canvasses delivered a week earlier, so they would certainly be on time for the moving elevator …

March 21, wed

HOORAY! My canvases were delivered early this morning, and one is already in the right place! The moving elevator is no longer necessary. Peter wanted to try if they could not “just” enter the stairs. “Just”: 100 stairs and a number of difficult to take corners. But they succeeded: HOORAY!

March 27, tue

Today was the long expected moving day, but without moving elevator :-) That went smoothly, it was’t that much. In the opposite direction it will be more. My other canvasses were still in the collection building, Dee & Jan dragged them upstairs. We encountered a few visitor groups. It seems a good idea to put me out of their reach, behind the red / white ribbons next week.

09Sep2018

Artist Residency in old mine building Beringen

In Art, Artist Residency, Limburg, painting by AnV / 09/09/2018 / Comments are closed

part 1: The most beautiful and blackest pigment, comes from …
part 2 : Coal preparation plant Beringen
part 3 : Artist Residency in old mine building

An Vanderlinden during her Artist Residency in the coal washing plant of Beringen
When I wrote about my visit to the coal preparatioin plant in Beringen at the end of March, I was not able to tell you everything. Now I am. Well, almost everything ;-)

In love with the coal preparation plant

As I wrote at the time, I am really crazy about mine buildings. I love that atmosphere, the space, the mysterious light … the whole history of it gives so much inspiration. Whenever I am in such a building, I just want to stay there and paint. During my tour of be-MINE, I fell so much in love with the release floor, that I said that aloud. “Then you have to submit an application”, was the answer.

Permission Artist Residency

I asked permission to make paintings on the release floor for a number of months, with the coal paint I was developing. The Beringen coal would eventually be processed at the place where it was originally brought up.

About 3 months after I officially asked my question, I received permission from be-MINE. Very exceptional, because normally that area can not be used without supervision. Sometimes dreams come true.

Isolation

The agreement contained some conditions, including that I should not receive visitors. This for safety reasons. Press / media attention was allowed in the end, as you noticed in a previous message. At first I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to shout it from the rooftops. But once at work, I was happy, even very happy, that no one could come to disturb. I was happy that I was not allowed to share stories and photos here and on social media. That gave me the peace I needed to focus solely on my paintings. I started to paint almost daily, often on weekends. From morning till evening. For 4 months eventually. It was very, very intensive, but oh so blissful.

Follow the report

Every day I took photos, and occasionally I wrote something to be able to report afterwards. As from October 1, I start here, and on instagram and facebook, to show you what happened during these 4 months.

My story is told in February. At that time, you can come and see my paintings in real life. They will be exhibited from February 10 to March 3, 2019, in cultural center Casino Beringen (Belgium). Save the date!