The women in Painted Idols

One of the five pillars

Twenty-four canvases, fifteen named women. The whole series, grouped by subject, with the ones painted more than once together.

6 articles under this pillar

The subjectsHow they are chosenConsent, credit and rightsAlt, inked and pin-up

The subjects

2 articles
Four stretched canvases of the same size standing in a row, all turned face to the wall, one of the four canvases circled in open black marker, an arrow from the handwritten words four times over, by Willem van der Krieken The women in Painted IdolsPainting Riae four times Five stretched canvases of different sizes standing in a row, all turned face to the wall, one canvas in the row circled in open black marker, an arrow from the handwritten words one canvas each, by Willem van der Krieken The women in Painted IdolsOne canvas each: the eleven subjects I painted only once

How they are chosen

1 article
A mobile phone lying face down on a paint-stained studio table, the phone lying face down circled in open black marker, an arrow from the handwritten words she stopped me mid-scroll, by Willem van der Krieken The women in Painted IdolsWhy these women, and not a life model
2 articles
A mobile phone lying face down on a paint-stained studio table, the phone lying face down circled in open black marker, an arrow from the handwritten words telling, not asking, by Willem van der Krieken The women in Painted IdolsDo the women know? What I write to them, and what I do not ask Two blank sheets of photographic paper on a studio table, one overlapping the other, the overlap of the two sheets circled in open black marker, an arrow from the handwritten words two rights, one image, by Willem van der Krieken The women in Painted IdolsPainting someone from a photograph: two rights on one image

Alt, inked and pin-up

2 articles
Five stretched canvases of different sizes standing in a row, all turned face to the wall, where two of the canvases overlap circled in open black marker, an arrow from the handwritten words the words overlap, they do not, by Willem van der Krieken The women in Painted IdolsAlt, inked, pin-up: what the words mean A wooden palette with skin tones at one side and a pool of blue-black at the other, a fine liner brush across it, the pool of blue-black circled in open black marker, an arrow from the handwritten words the ink is the subject, by Willem van der Krieken The women in Painted IdolsTattooed and inked: the canvases where the ink is the subject

Home › Notes from the studio › The women in Painted Idols

The paintings form a series called Painted Idols. The subjects are women who are looked at for three seconds at a time, thousands of times a day. The photographs are found online, saved, and one of them gets painted months later. Every painting carries her first name and credits the source photograph.

That is the whole method, and it is worth saying plainly, because it is the question people are too polite to ask. These are not anonymous nudes and they are not invented figures. They are twenty-four paintings of fifteen named women, made from images those women published themselves.

Every one of those photographs was made to be scrolled past. It gets three seconds, if that, and then it is gone. A canvas takes weeks and then hangs on a wall for years. That reversal is the series: an image built to be forgotten, made into something you have to live with.

Painted more than once

Painted once

The series as a whole

Questions people ask

Who are the women in the paintings?

They are women who are looked at for three seconds at a time, photographed for attention, and scrolled past by nearly everyone who sees them. Each painting carries her first name and credits the source photograph. Fifteen women appear across the twenty-four canvases in the series.

Are the paintings made from photographs?

Yes. The photographs are found online, saved, and one of them is painted months later. The gap matters: what survives months of sitting in a folder is usually not the most explicit image but the one that keeps being interesting.

Why is the series called Painted Idols?

An idol is something people look at. These images were made to be looked at once and then forgotten. Painting one does the opposite: weeks of work on a single photograph, so it can be looked at for years instead of seconds. It starts with saving: the image is kept, set aside, not scrolled past. The painting comes much later, and only for a few of them.

Do the women know about the paintings?

I write to them. Every woman whose photograph has become a painting is sent a message about it. Some wrote back, and the ones who did were warm about it. Others never replied. These are accounts with very large followings, where one message from a painter does not stand out, so what I can tell you is that I tried, not that she knows. And writing to someone is not the same as asking them: none of it is offered here as consent.

Buying one of these is the easy part. It is the wall that takes the decision, because everyone who walks in will see it and form an opinion about you. That is the real transaction, and it is not one I can make for you. What I can tell you is that it only has to be made once: the reaction fades inside a month and the painting does not. Hang it anyway.

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