Evert Thielen's work can be described as the inspired reincarnation of historical artistic motifs and practices within the creation of a contemporary visual language that aims at precision, craft and symbolic layering. Beyond an extensive study of the recent and historiographical scientific research of the Western European arts, a fascination that continues to occupy Thielen to this day, at the beginning of his artistic career, the artist devoted himself to the practical material-technological research of the Flemish Primitives at the Royal Institute for Art Patrimony (KIK-IRPA) in Brussels, under the direction of Prof. Dr. J.H.J. van Asperen de Boer. The combination of practical experience, academic knowledge and a great general awareness of the European arts is fully reflected in Thielen's practical approach.
Polyptych Bellenhof
Evert Thielen's technique is inspired by the layered painting technique of the medieval Flemish Primitives. A white ground layer is applied to a wooden support, on which an underdrawing is then placed, representing the composition of the image. The artist then applies several transparent layers of paint on top of each other, which are varnished.
Technique
Underdrawing polyptych Bellenhof
Due to the lightness of the pigments and the layering of the paint, the light source reflects directly on the white ground, giving the paintings a radiant effect, as if it is giving light from within. This medieval technique is realized with homemade paint, consisting of a combination of egg yolk and natural pigments (lapis lazuli, malachite, ochre,...).
Natural pigments
Evert Thielen paints on wooden panels made of very hard, weather-resistant wood. The frame thereby forms an inseparable whole with the painted part. It is often gilded by the artist or elaborated in an artistic way to enhance the painting as a whole in a formal way.
Panel
Diptych with elaborate frame
The back of the panels are painted with a marble imitation, a process also called "marbling." This marbling is differs in color, texture and pattern in each painting and imitates natural stone. This process originates in art history, where the backs of paintings were often marbled.
Marbled backside