Now, Bring Me That Horizon
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Size: 220 x 170 cm
Extreme painting. The term is used in sports, in art it would apply nicely to Nils Verkaeren’s practice. He paints on location, preferably in remote places. Argentina, Colombia, but equally in Flanders or France, he seeks out unspoiled spaces to transform his thoughts into matter. It may be somewhat surprising that he seeks out these places to paint, given that he cannot (and does not really want to) be called a landscape painter. But he apparently needs them to get into a proper frame of mind. “For he does not merely paint what he sees, he experiences what he paints,” writes art historian Eva Wuytjens. “He experiences deconstructing, combining and reinterpreting the surrounding vegetation as essential within his painterly research and within his isolation from society.” The wild elements of nature provide an alibi for painting rather than a starting point, as the reportage below, made on the occasion of his artist in residence project in Colombia, makes clear.