From Looking to Image
A painting does not begin with pastel, but with looking. Not hurried, not descriptive, but attentive and slow.
A reference photograph is not a goal for me, but a point of departure. It contains information, but no image yet.
What interests me is not what is visible, but what lingers — the stillness, the tension, the light that suggests something without explaining it.
The reference as a point of departure
I use photographs to return to a moment, not to reconstruct it.
The camera records everything; the eye chooses.
Some details disappear immediately, others keep insisting.
That is where the work begins:
in letting go of what is unnecessary, and holding on to what feels essential.
Tone before colour
Before colour appears, I search for tone.
Light and dark form the backbone of the image.
In a tonal study, it is not about beauty, but about structure:
where calm can emerge, where tension may remain, where the eye can breathe.
Without a strong tonal structure, colour remains superficial.
With a solid tone, even a limited palette can speak.
Colour as choice
Colour is not an addition, but a decision.
I choose consciously — often less than reality offers.
Not every hue earns its place.
Some colours are better at remaining silent than at speaking.
In colour studies, I look for cohesion: how warm and cool influence one another,
how saturation is tempered by tone, how atmosphere emerges through restraint.
When the image emerges
There comes a moment when studies no longer provide answers, but direction. Attention then shifts from thinking to doing.
Only then does pastel touch the paper. Not to search, but to speak.
What follows is not a copy of the reference, but the result of looking, choosing, and listening — until the image begins to carry itself.