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The beauty of the rose is the rose itself. If I want to
capture that beauty, I have to paint that rose. That is
how I arrived at realistic painting. If the painting is
‘just like real life’, that is only because that way it
expresses beauty. If you paint in a realistic manner
you discover a world full of light, colour, form,
atmosphere, or patterns, impossible to capture in
one painter’s life. Van Gogh repeated after
Rembrandt: nature is our first teacher. Another
indispensible source is the history of art.

The old Cennini was right: making lots of drawings
is good for your painting teqnique. Besides, it’s lovely
work. With a pencil and a paper, a train trip is over
before you know it. I like doing a very small drawing
with a fine pencil point just as much as a large mural
with broad swaps. Recently I painted the sky on the
sliding doors in my office room, and now I feel like I am
floating in the clouds when I sit at my computer.

I like to paint an under-layer, for example in distemper, which is
nice for daubing. It works great for tree bark, but not for a clear blue sky.

Although I have always loved to draw, even as a child, I also had a keen social interest. That´s why I went to Bolivia as a sociologist, but I came back an artist. Finding my way in painting was a journey of exploration, during which I encountered many artistic views that made me think. More about that in my book Gezien van de Riet. In ´t leven vindtmental  (With a summary in English).

Education and training

Professional career 

Works: Mural paintings in Bolivia

From early morning till late at night  200x600cm

In 1997 I painted a mural in the new Dutch-financed hospital in La Paz, Bolivia, assisted by Bolivian artists Alberto Medina and Filhy Torrelio.
First of all, I asked staff, patients and community members about their
ideas and wishes. Doctors suggested I should paint ailing patients
being saved by medics, but patients themselves preferred subjects
like flowers and children playing.
They also insisted on Jesus being depicted, and their own Indian
deities like mountains and rivers. I tried to gather all suggestions in a
story line about reproductive health - except the ‘ailing patients’, who
would only scare off people.

Traditional and modern culture intermingle, just as in real life.
At the far left, just before dawn, a father to be is undergoing a ritual
before his wife’s giving birth; after the birth, he hands his wife a
plate of soup.
In the middle we see a marriage and a visit to the hospital for a birth.
Old age is depicted at the far right, late in the day, where the sunset casts a pink glow over the perpetual snow of Mount Illimani.
Collecting the images to be included in the mural was exciting. People loved to pose for the different scenes; this way the mural almost painted itself.

Left: detail from mural. Centre: Alberto Medina, Filhy Torrelio, Gezien van de Riet.
Right: First ritual haircut by godparents at baptism.