How the work is made

One of the five pillars

Oil on canvas, one painter, several weeks a canvas. What happens between a photograph and a finished painting.

3 articles under this pillar

The methodWhere it comes from

The method

2 articles
One old paintbrush lying on a worn wooden table, its bristles splayed and stiff with paint dried hard into them, the dried bristles circled in open black marker, an arrow from the handwritten words weeks, nothing, and then, by Willem van der Krieken How the work is madeHow long one painting takes A stretched canvas standing in a studio with its face turned to the wall, only the stretcher bars visible, the canvas turned to the wall circled in open black marker, an arrow from the handwritten words it stops asking, by Willem van der Krieken How the work is madeWhen is a painting finished?

Where it comes from

2 articles
A sheet of photographic paper lying face down on a studio table beside a magnifying glass, the sheet lying face down circled in open black marker, an arrow from the handwritten words what it left out, by Willem van der Krieken How the work is madePainting from a photograph: the objection, and the answer A plastered corridor with an open doorway into a small empty side room, the doorway into the empty room circled in open black marker, an arrow from the handwritten words same room, new name, by Willem van der Krieken How the work is madeA short history of erotic art, from Pompeii to Instagram

Home › Notes from the studio › How the work is made

Everything on this site is oil on stretched canvas, painted over several weeks in my studio in Boekel in the south of the Netherlands. That is a slow and slightly unfashionable way to make images, and it is the whole reason the work looks the way it does. This is what happens between a photograph and a finished canvas.

New here? Start with these three.

  1. How long one painting takes
  2. When is a painting finished?
  3. Painting from a photograph: the objection, and the answer

The method

Where it comes from

The painter

  • About Willem van der Krieken: twenty-five years of making images in 3D design, advertising and software, work he still does, and what that has to do with how these canvases look.

The material

  • The original paintings: oil on stretched canvas, unframed and ready to hang, signed, with a certificate of authenticity.
  • Signed prints: how a print differs from the canvas it came from.

What it means for a buyer

Questions people ask

What are the paintings made of?

Acrylic underpainting, finished in oil on stretched canvas. They are sold unframed and ready to hang, signed, and come with a certificate of authenticity.

“Oil on linen” and “oil on canvas” are not two options to choose between. Canvas is the woven support, and linen and cotton are both kinds of it. Linen costs more, cotton is more common, and neither word tells you whether a painting was painted or printed, which is the thing actually worth checking.

These listings say canvas, and they say it on purpose. The supports are bought stretched and ready to paint, so which of the two weaves any given canvas carries is not something I can state per painting. Naming one anyway would be a detail invented to sound precise.

Who paints them?

I do, and only me, in a studio in Boekel in Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands. I have spent twenty-five years making images in 3D design, advertising and software, and I still do. The painting happens alongside that, which is why nothing here was made on a deadline.

How long does one painting take?

Several weeks per canvas. That is also why there are twenty-four of them rather than two hundred, and why there is no second version of any painting.

Can I commission a painting?

I take a few portrait commissions each year. There are no deadlines, I decide how it gets painted, and I may decline. If you want to ask, the route is the contact page.

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