Original painting of a girl playing video games by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Quarantine I: Girl with a Black Joypad’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
Original Painting
Original painting of an Easter Egg by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Easter Egg’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
This painting developed in an unexpected way. With Easter around the corner, I started painting an egg I boiled that morning. As I progressed, I decided for a change I did not want to paint the real-life background. So, I started to experiment.
I thought about the colors that would work well together and wanted to keep part of the bright orange background. I like blue with orange and I think it goes well with the yellow of the egg as well. So, blue it was. You can clearly see in the video that I did not have very clear idea of what the artwork should end up looking like. I kept changing and trying things and eventually it became a very vibrant and expressive piece. Almost like a can of paint splattered onto the wall behind the egg.
Original Painting
Original painting of some Indonesian herbs and spices by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Herbs and spices’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
The video above speaks for itself, but the progress is similar to what I’ve been doing lately. I prepared my canvas with some gesso, mixed with Vermillion. Then I started to create the lines of my subject with primary cyan to make sure my composition was good enough in terms of size and proportions. Next step was adding in the background and the surface. Then I started filling the plastic containers and finished by adding some smaller details like shadows and highlights.
The herbs and spices I used as a subject come from the Indonesian (in my case Dutch-Indonesian) cuisine.
My dad was born in the Dutch East Indies (a Dutch colony now Indonesia). He was of mixed European and Indonesian descent, meaning his ancestors were both Indonesian and European. When he came to the Netherlands with his parents, brother and sister in the fifties, he took a lot of his country of birth with him. Think of music, food, attitude and behavior. After marrying my (Dutch) mom, my brother and I grew up with both Dutch and Indo influences. This sometimes shows in my art as well.
Anyway, one of the things about my roots I enjoy very much is the food. I like to cook (and eat) and this subject shows some herbs and spices typically used in the Indo cuisine. Now you can see we buy the herbs and spices in these plastic containers because lots of dishes use a lot of this stuff (several teaspoons of each). So better make sure you have some stock!
Showing in the painting (from top to bottom): Coriander (Ketumbar), Candle Nuts (Kemiri), Cumin (Jinten) and Turmeric (Kunyit/Kunir).
Original Painting
Original painting of a Ketchup bottle by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Time to Ketchup’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
Original Painting
Original painting of a glass of lemonade by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Cool Lemonade’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
Original Painting
Original painting of three bell peppers by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Bell Peppers’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
No progress images this time, but a time-lapse video of this speed painting. I thought a video would show the progress even better.
Because I wanted the video to be relatively short (other paintings take days, weeks or even months), my time to put something interesting on the canvas was quite limited. I did not use an under painting but started to paint straight onto the canvas from my reference. I tried to build up the painting in a way that made most sense. First the background, the wooden surface, then the bell peppers and the plastic wrap around them.
Knowing I didn’t have a lot of time caused me to feel some pressure. You don’t want to make a lot of mistakes and you want to work as efficient as possible. It makes you conscious about each and every stroke.
So, less detailed than some other works but just as challenging and maybe even more fun!
Original Painting
G.I. Joe action figures painting titled “Real American DJs” by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Real American DJs’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
The images below show you the overall progress of the painting from start to finish. I started on a blank canvas and created my initial line work with pencil. Next, I started to paint Quick Kick´s head and body. If you read my Back To The Future Painting post, you can see the way I´m building up this painting is different. I start with the rough composition and smooth things out and add details as I proceed. With this G.I. Joe painting, I started with the details right from the beginning.
I actually started working on this painting in 2018. Then I left it alone for over a year and picked it up again this March, 2020. I stopped in 2018 after painting Snow Serpent, the blue-grey action figure. When I continued working on it this year, I continued blocking in the big shapes and later on added more details. I don’t know why I changed my painting method, it just happened. So I actually used two methods of building up a painting on this single piece: starting with details and blocking in rough shapes, adding layers and smoothing things out over time.
At this point, I enjoy the process of working my way down to details more. I think because creating details from the start can feel very tedious. The result can look amazing, but it doesn’t really fit me I guess. I enjoy putting in rough strokes, see how it affects the overall painting and making it smooth later. Or, leave some parts rough and lose while adding tiny details in others, which can create some nice visual effects. It is obvious both approaches will deliver different results. And for this reason I think this is an interesting piece. On top of that, the composition is quite unique and has a personal touch.
I was born in the late seventies and grew up in the eighties. I loved my G.I. Joe action figures and video games in general. The action figures in this painting are the actual ones I used to play with as a kid. Then I thought it would be interesting to place the figures out of their ‘normal’ context. At the same time I found it fun to use objects from different periods in my life. Eventually I came up with using the Playstation Dualshock controller as a DJ mixer/turntables and use my old Tablet as a video wall. Real American DJs is the result.
Original Painting
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Original painting titled “Social Isolation” by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Social Isolation’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2019
The images below show you the overall progress of the painting from start to finish. I started on a blank canvas and painted it with a mixture of gesso, Primary Cyan and Primary Yellow. Next, I used a darker brown tone to create the lines of the Playstation 4 Dualshock controller and noodles packaging. The next step was blocking in the major features of both objects. The stage that took the most time was adding details like subtle shadows and highlights. The finishing touch was adding some interesting tones to the background to give it some depth.
The recent Covid-19 developments inspired me to create this painting. It’s a topic to take very seriously, but with more time sitting at home, art is a way to make people aware and also to make the best of the situation and keep smiling.
Anyway, this one-day painting summed up the situation and how it looked for me that particular day. After all, I often paint moments and memories, and this painting will be how I remember a moment of this terrible Corona virus impacting our world in many ways. The important message underneath is: stay home, no matter how you use that time.
Original Painting
Fine Art Print
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Original Pulp Fiction painting titled “The One That Says Bad Motherfucker” by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘The One That Says Bad Motherfucker’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2019
The images below show you the overall progress of the painting from start to finish. I started on a blank canvas and painted it with a mixture of gesso and burnt sienna. Next, I used a darker brown tone to create the overall lines and composition (at this point people thought I was painting Bruce Lee :)) After this I started with filling Jules’ shirt, head, arm and ‘Bad Motherfucker’ wallet. Next, I continued with the diner booth and stone wall in the background. When this first layer was done I added extra layers to fill in spots that didn’t get covered entirely. The final and most time consuming stage was adding details like the highlights on the booth, Samuel’s shirt and skin.
Pulp Fiction Original Painting titled ‘The One That Says Bad Motherfucker’ by contemporary artist Bart Carels.
This artwork shows a still from the scene in Pulp Fiction where Jules Winnfield tells Ringo (a.k.a. Pumpkin) to give him back his wallet.
“- I want you to go in that bag and find my wallet.
– Which one is it?
– It’s the one that says bad motherfucker.”
Original Painting
Fine Art Print
Check below for availability of the original painting or fine art prints of this artwork.
