The freedom to be able to paint what he wants is very important to Martijn
Lucas van Erp. He often allows himself to be guided by his own imagination.
But that’s not to say that Van Erp paints every image that occurs to him.
Quite the contrary, his expressionist paintings betray a critical approach to
his favourite subject matter – the (urbanized) landscape. Whatever he decides
to paint, be it a blossoming Japanese tree or a bustling townscape dominated
by skyscrapers, Van Erp always succeeds in capturing his scenes with the same
mysterious beauty. By rhythmically repeating certain elements he adds a
dynamic touch to his works. It is as if a powerful force draws you into the
paintings. Van Erp’s paintings are figurative, but they nevertheless don’t
tell a concrete story. More important are the symbolic, emotional values of
the employed colours and the artist’s personal style. Van Erp’s paintings
should not be interpreted, but personally experienced.
Van Erp recently exchanged his dark studio for a house with large windows and
a view dominated by trees. The tranquillity and light of his new working
environment have had a direct influence on his landscapes. In his early works
he tended to use a lot of dark colours, which he applied to his canvases in
thick brush strokes. Many of those paintings show a mysterious light
shimmering at the horizon or between the trees, which makes it seem as though
the works are glowing from within. But his more recent paintings are
characterized by an entirely different kind of light – the light of diaphanous
skies above towns, which Van Erp creates with transparent washes of white and
grey. It is as if daylight is only just breaking through and has not yet woken
you entirely. A kind of twilight zone. The artist has expertly adapted his
technique to match the kind of light he aims to capture – no more thick daubs
of paint, but almost translucent brush strokes. You won’t find many more
convincing examples of how daylight can influence a painter’s work.
Until a few months ago, Van Erp’s main source of inspiration was his own
imagination. His latest works however betray external influences, too, in
particular from illustrations in the National Geographic. Things that appeal
strongly to his imagination are reports focusing on the forces of nature, such
as ‘The miracle of star birth’. But he also finds inspiration in metropolises
such as Buenos Aires and Boston, with their jumbles of light sources, streets
and skyscrapers. Sometimes Van Erp combines such a townscape with a natural
scene in one painting. He then harmoniously merges the timeless beauty of the
natural landscape with present-day testimonies of urbanization and
industrialization. His latest works also reveal an ever stronger tendency to
mingle fantasy and realism. He may start a painting basing himself on an image
from reality, but very soon he will allow his imagination to take over. ‘In
the end I find it more adventurous to rely on my own interpretation of things’.
Martijn Lucas van Erp (18-11-1975 Heerlen) graduated at the Academie Beeldende
Kunsten (Visual Arts Academy) in Maastricht (the Netherlands) in 2000. In 2000
and 2004 he was nominated for the Parkstad Limburg Award. He has participated
in several group exhibitions in various museums, e.g. Museum Het Domein in
Sittard, Museum Van Bommel Van Dam in Venlo and Galerie Jan van Hoof in Den
Bosch. In 2004 he received a starters’ grant from the Fonds BKVB (Netherlands
Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture).
