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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.

Artist Residency An Vanderlinden in be-MINE

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

An Vanderlinden in Beringen, april 4, 2018

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 :-)

Writing on the wall: "Paint Office"

An Vanderlinden in be-MINE, april 5

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

Schilderijen AnV in mijngebouw Beringen - 6 april 2017schilderij in opbouw, 6 april 2018, An Vanderlinden in Beringen Mijn

 

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 2018Today, 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.

levering linnen schildersdoeken door Artel

 

 

 

 

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!

26Jul2018

Charbon de Beringen : Artist Residency in coal washing plant

In Art, painting by AnV / 26/07/2018 / Comments are closed

You already knew that I make paint from coal, since you’re following this blog.
The end of march, I revealed that I’m working with local coal to make the darkest black paint.

But what I didn’t told you yet, is that I was preparing my Artist Residency at that time. For 4 months, I had the most beautiful, inspiring studio I can imaging.

Local TV station TVL came to pay me a visit
https://www.tvl.be/nieuws/kunstenares-maakt-schilderijen-in-oude-mijngebouwen-beringen-62730

so did the internetgazet:
http://www.internetgazet.be/an-vanderlinden-schildert-met-steenkool.aspx

Both links are in Dutch, but you’ll get the picture.

My eternal thanks to be-MINE for giving me permission and their kind support,
and a very big thank you to all former miners who dug up this beautiful coal.

29May2018

“ART Connects (?), Across Borders” – Expo in De Kantfabriek, Ninove

In Art, ceramic, exhibitions, project coal by AnV / 29/05/2018 / Comments are closed

Sorry for the lack on blog post lately. I’m working (more then) fulltime in my studio and haven’t seen my office for a while.

Latest news: I’m participating in the group show “ART Connects (?), Across Borders” with my ceramics. The location is “De Kantfabriek” in Ninove (BE), that’s an old lace factory.
The opening show where you’re kindly invited to, is Thursday, May 31st.
The works of art I’ve seen from the other participants today are really marvellous, so don’t miss this show!

Me, I’m showing for the first time my favorite black painted ceramic Saint Barbara. I already miss her in my home, but you can take a look at here for the next month. Be kind to her: she’s fragile, and she doesn’t want to be touched without white cotton gloves. She will bite you if you act otherwise. And if SHE doesn’t: I will. That’s a promise.

affiche “ART Connects (?), Across Borders”

“ART Connects (?), Across Borders”

with Ilan Weiss | Nicolas Baeyens | Julie Scheurweghs | Feline Minne | Gino Rizzi | Caroline Vandenbouhede | Marijke Henkens | An Vanderlinden | Anna Gray | Hilde NIJS |

Openingshow Thursday, May 31st, 20:00
with Art Critic/Poet Inge Braeckman, Percussion duo As One, filmschool Narafi Brussels with sci-fi shorty “Brick the wall”

EXPO untill july first, every Saturday and Sunday from 15 – 18 hours.

De Kantfabriek, Burchtstraat 4, Ninove, Belgium

28Mar2018

Coal preparation plant Beringen

In Art, painting, project coal by AnV / 28/03/2018 / 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

Mine shaft Beringen - AnV.be So I saw coal lying on a place that I could not reach, and popped the question, to be-MINE. If I please could collect some coal, because I want to use it in my paintings? Turned out they already knew my work, so that was allowed. Even more: I got a whole guided tour through the buildings, on the way to better coal than the one I had seen from the outside.

I’m really crazy about these old coal plants, so I was high for at least a week afterwards, from all the places I’ve seen with a safety helmet on my head.
Actually, I’m high again whenever I look at the photos I made that day. Even though most of them failed because of being taken too quickly and enthusiastically :).

But the best is yet to come: the coal, because that’s what it was all about. Coal from Beringen, the city my parents originated from. Coal from the coal mine in whose hospital I was born.

I got a few “types”, different thicknesses of coal. On sight this coal does not really look black, it is not really dark. “That’s dust,” I think, so I start by washing the smallest coal. Funny though, washing coal that you have received from a coal-washing plant. Even funnier was that the rinsing water was so thick that it did not run through the sieve, but remained on top of it. It looked like mercury. This is probably due to the magnetite that was added to the water in the coal washing plant in order to separate the coal from the stones, but I deviate.

Coal from the coal preparation plant of Beringen - AnV.besmall pieces of coal from Beringen - AnV.be

So I washed the coal, and let it dry. It still looked as light. Afterwards I grinded it to powder, added some products and rubbed it into paint.
Pigment paste made with coal from Beringen - AnV.beMy blackest coalpaint - AnV.be

Black paint. But really black paint. Much blacker than the color of the dry coal suggests that it could ever be. So black, that I started to wonder …

Do you remember the tests I was talking about yesterday, to make paint as black as possible? Guess what else is blacker than coal that has been dulled by mixing chemical products?
Exactly: coal from Beringen. :-)

Blackest coalpaint tests by An Vanderlinden

Since then I have been “slightly” possessed by this coal from Beringen. I stand up with it, and I go to sleep with it. Hours and hours and hours I’ve spent on testing, because with this, I really want to paint. I’ll tell you more about that soon. I am still trying to summarize it …. and that’s a hell of a job itself ;)

25Mar2018

The most beautiful and blackest pigment, comes from ……

In Art, painting, project coal by AnV / 25/03/2018 / 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

I talk a lot about paint over here, which I’m making from pigment-ground coal. But what I didn’t told you yet, is with which coal I’m doing all these tests. Not all coal is the same you know. Far from.

From Semple’s Black over coal from Zolder to weird tests with purchased coal.

kibble coal from Zolder - anv.beMy collaboration with Semple’s search for the blackest paint possible for everyone (except Anish Kapoor), was the beginning of my “coalpaint story”. I started experimenting with coal from Zolder. That paint was dark brown. Then I tried anthracite. The result was a neutral black paint. Mixed with Semple’s Black 2.0, it was the blackest existing paint. Until here you were up-to-date.

But I wanted to make the paint more black. The more light something absorbens, the darker it seems. A matt surface absorbens light. But the antracite I used, shines. A shining pigment reflects the light in stead of absorbing it. I should be able to fix that…

tests manipulated coal pigment- AnV.be

Fix it, like in: trying to make the coal mat. For this I did the most idiotic tests: Mixing coal with White Spirit, with turpentine, with Ammonia, with … all unhealthy stinking products, which deprived the coal of its luster. I transformed the matted coal into paint, hoping to get the black paint even blacker. And that worked. The difference between the paint results was by far not as big as the difference between dry pigment, but it was there. A lot of hassle. And really not healthy. Good for a test strip, not for producing.

But because of the color difference between Zolder’s coal and that of the purchased coal …

I became very curious about what color the coal of Beringen would give. Below the washing plant, I could see piles of coal, which I would really like to have. But the site was closed with fences, and there was a warning sign that there’s camera surveillance. Damn.

If there is something that I learned in 2017

then it is, that if I really want something, I just have to dare to ask. The answer is surprisingly often yes, and I am incredibly happy about that.
The rest you can read tomorrow :-), in part 2.

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