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MARC C. SLOOTJES
Marc Working in his Studio
My Collection of Girls: Romy Oil on Canvas 35” x 28”
Faces of Death 1 Oil on Canvas 28” x 28”
There is an intriguing sensuality to the works of Marc
C. Slootjes. Regardless of the fact that many of his
current paintings are nudes, it is the lithe brushstrokes and
their visible intentionality that is alluring. Slootjes applies
paint with his fingers. The marks are left on the canvas’
surface—zig-zag, dash and bold—are direct imprints of the
movement of his hands. There is no brush allowed to act
as intermediary, so he is allowed a closer relation to the
canvas, the images flowing directly from his head through
his hands onto the painting’s surface. This frees Slootjes
to engage with his imagination. He has deliberately
shunned formal training, fearing that his own style would
be moulded into that of his teachers, and has instead
embraced the world of ‘Outsider Art’—a school of thought
that concentrates on self-taught methods and a purity
of expression through artistic media. Many of Slootjes’
pieces refer to or are drawn directly from the dreamworld
he calls ‘Thohhworld’, which he created in response to the
chronic bronchitis from which he suffered as a child and his
subsequent stays in the hospital and at home. His figures
and faces retain this otherworldly quality, and some have
a darker, eerie feel. There is an emptiness that Slootjes
feels once he has completed a painting, one he nominally
associates with death. These philosophical themes seem
to manifest in his ‘Thohhworld’ paintings. Slootjes’ various
nudes from his ‘My Collection of Girls’ series are drawn
from the real world and appear more straightforward. Here,
the colors that show starkly from dark backgrounds in his
‘Thohhworld’ paintings are brightened and more at home.
Despite their artificial hues—blues and greens on breasts,
blood red nipples—they look more natural and at ease on
these canvases.
Marc C. Slootjes was born in and currently works in
Haastrecht, Netherlands. After finding his artistic style,
he has exhibited widely in the Netherlands and the rest of
Europe.
Websites: www.thohhworld.nl/overig/index_en.html
www.Art-Mine.com/ArtistPage/Marc_C._Slootjes.aspx
13 ArtisSpectrum