Dutch Deelee

Deelee (Black Straps) started with the pose, and then with the way the whole thing sat in the frame. That was enough to keep me there. What she is wearing and how she actually is are two different things, and I did not resolve that. I am not sure it can be resolved. There is a light in that canvas that was never in the photograph; it is there because the contrast needed somewhere to go.

Who is Dutch Deelee?

Dutch Deelee is a Dutch model and content creator who started out modelling and built her audience on Instagram, where she publishes her own work.

This summary is put together from publicly available sources and has not been checked with her. If something here is wrong or she would rather it were not here, write to the studio and it is corrected or removed.

Painting Dutch Deelee in the studio

Deelee (Golden Girl) began with her look. Direct, sure of itself, not asking anything of me. That is not how every image in this series arrives -- four canvases of Riae and she never once met my eye -- and it changes what the painting has to do.

The difficulty in that one was not her. There is no gold in oil paint, so whatever is behind her is a pile of decisions pretending to be something it cannot be, and it took considerably longer than she did.

Both were painted days at a time over several weeks, with long gaps of nothing in between. No sketch, no plan. I do not know what a canvas will be when I start, which is also why nothing can go wrong here: there is no target to miss. Both stopped when I was finished with them. Whether they are finished is a different question and I cannot answer it.

Dutch Deelee paintings: what exists

Both are 80 x 60 cm, oil on stretched canvas, signed, one of one. A hand-signed print exists of each, in a small edition that is never reprinted. The paintings stay one of a kind.

What is still available, and at what price, is on the cards below.