Interview with an Artist: Fred Wijenberg
by Yello Dec 31, 2018
Image via Aruba Cosecha
Fred Wijenberg is a Dutch painter.
A palpable passion and talent for art threads through his life story; from his early years training in architectural design, to his youthful pastime of Conté™ drawings. He’s enjoyed a career in intelligence photography, and finally, his current preoccupation with acrylic and oil painting.
After training to become an architect, he spent the majority of his professional career travelling the world with the Dutch Marine Corps before settling in Aruba. Fred speaks to Yello about how he went from marine to artist, the cathartic effects of painting, and how island life inspires him.
Tell us a bit about your background.
I studied to be an architect at school, but I found it a little bit boring; I wanted to discover the world and help people. I was young, and like most young guys I liked adventure, so I went to the Marine Corps. My hobby at that time was painting – actually it was drawing then – Conté™ drawings.
After some time with the Marine Corps, I went to Rotterdam, where the headquarters are. I was there working as a draftsman for a few years. But again, after some time I wanted more adventure. I could choose to become a professional draftsman, but then I would be obligated to do that for the rest of my life and I didn’t like that, so I went to the Operational Marines. In the Operational Marines, I did some intelligence, and I got some education as a photographer. When I was stationed on Aruba, I met a police officer who told me he might have a job for me as a prison director. I did it for three years –it was totally different, still not painting. I didn’t have any time for painting – there was a lot of stress – it was actually quite dangerous, working in that place. Of course, the money was good, but my wife told me I looked stressed. She said I should stop. I had my pension from the Marine Corps, so I didn’t have to work anymore, and I stopped. Then, I took some time off and went back to Holland, bought a nice house.
How did you get started with your art again?
I suddenly felt this urge, I wanted to do something. I’m not an emotional person, but there was something in my body that had to come out. My wife prompted me: “In the past,” she said, “you made beautiful drawings, just start drawing again.” So I started painting, at that time with acrylic.
When I was painting, it was like reading a good book – I could not stop. I forget to eat, I forget to drink, I just paint, and I feel so good. What I was painting, it wasn’t from pictures, it was just from what I was feeling. So I started putting colours on a canvas, and it came automatically actually. Acrylic, it dries very fast and it can be difficult to work with it, so I started to paint with oil and I liked that so much.
When I look through my paintings, I love my paintings. Love is maybe not a good word, but…I kept a lot of paintings at home, and my wife said I should sell them. I went Cosecha [a design store and art gallery in Oranjestad] and they liked my paintings, so they sell them for me. But, it’s hard for me to sell my paintings because all these things in my life, what I’ve experienced, I actually put in my paintings. I didn’t know in the beginning…it is actually a way for my emotions to come out. It’s difficult to explain, but I hope you understand. I was in Iraq, I was in Africa, Cambodia – it was very hard, but a good job of course. Now, when I’m older, all these kinds of things I put on paper, on linen. With oil paint, I do it only on linen, so I buy the best linen I can buy, and the same with oil paint, I order very expensive oil paints with a lot of pigment. In my paintings, I can express things that are inside of me. Now that I’ve started painting, I cannot stop.
So it’s like a diary, in a way?
Yeah, actually, yes. It is very hard to sell my paintings. I have to sell them, because I have too many paintings at home otherwise. But if someone sees one of my paintings and says,
“I like this painting so much, how much it is?”
I say to myself, okay, the material was, let’s say, 150 dollars… “You can buy it for 300 dollars.”
And then this man or woman says, “Oh it’s too much, I don’t have that much money!”
I’ll tell them, “Do you really like it?”
“Yes.”
I say, “Be careful with it; you can take it for free.”
It’s strange.
One day, I met a policewoman. I didn’t know this woman; she was on LinkedIn, and she came to Aruba for vacation. I thought, okay, she’s a policewoman from New York – I think she does a good job, and so I wrote to her on LinkedIn. Maybe she thought, strange guy, what does he want? But I met her, just before she got on the plane.
I said: “I have a small present for you”, and I gave her a very nice painting.
She was surprised and said she liked it very much. That woman serves a difficult job every day, a hard job. So, why shouldn’t somebody like her receive something beautiful for free? She was so happy, and that makes me happy too.
How would you describe your artistic style?
My style is a little bit between realism and impressionism. Sometimes, I go towards impressionism and I just put paint on the canvas. But other times, I am very precise and it takes many hours. I like impressionism the most, but it is a little bit between.
Maybe too much impressionism is difficult for other people to understand. I see it, so I know what to paint.
Van Gogh is one of my favourite painters. In Miami, this year, I bought a painting by an artist who paints a little bit like Van Gogh and I like it very much, this style. But actually, I don’t want to copy another painter. A lot of people copy, and with realism…I think everyone has a cellphone, everyone makes pictures. If you want to make a perfect painting, just make a picture, then you have realism. I want to show something the way I see it.
You paint a lot of Aruban landscapes. Is there anywhere in Aruba where you love to work, or that particularly inspires you?
In Aruba, the light is so strong, so good. When I’m at Eagle Beach, let’s say, and I look at the sunset on Eagle Beach – wow, it is amazing. My house in Aruba is on a hill, so when I’m on the balcony and I look outside, every morning I see the sunrise and in the evening the sunset. It is so beautiful, and every time it is different, it is a lot of red or…the feeling is good. Light, in Aruba, is perfect.
That inspires me because in Holland everything’s grey. London too, all of these cities are just grey – the people are grey, everything is grey, boring – they don’t smile on the train. But in Aruba, people have a lot of emotions, happy or angry, and I like that very much. I try to be like them, but it’s not possible. I’m too Dutch, I’m too serious. Sometimes I’m a little bit jealous because I see these girls or old men just dancing in the sand – playing tennis, and afterwards dancing. Dutch people are so strict.
Everything in Aruba inspires me, but mostly the light and of course, the sea. The sea is so beautiful. In the past I think a lot those artists who went to France, went not only for all the painters to meet, but also because the weather was so much better, the light was better!
Do you have a specific working process?
Sometimes. For example, sometimes somebody orders a painting and says they want it to have the Town Hall in it. With those kinds of paintings, I’m an architect, so I’m very strict and I paint it as I learned at school in the past. Then at the end, I try to put a little bit more impressionism in. But, I hate to do it.
I can do it – I did a portrait, I like portraits too. But if you make a portrait, let’s say, of an old woman or old man, you can give this person, on canvas, some character. With a young girl with, what do you call them, dimples? It was so difficult, just the skin….
Has anywhere you’ve traveled to influenced your work a lot?
I was a photographer with the Marine Corps in Cambodia, working in intel. I went to all of these places in the jungle – I had to take photos of the jungle, and also of the people. The nature over there was very beautiful and inspired me very much. I have a lot of pictures, maybe a thousand pictures, from Cambodia. I had two or three cameras with me, one was for my own use, and another was just for work. I kept all of these pictures, and I have them stored very carefully in Holland. I think the Marine Corps museum would really like to have them. Maybe one day I will do something with them, I don’t know. Cambodia surprised me very much.
Have you ever thought about doing mixed-media work that combines your photography and painting?
I did in the past. I used airbrush with my photography. You can give more colour, let’s say, to a building or tree or whatever. But all that kind of work that I made, I gave it away. I have nothing of those left.
Nowadays, sometimes I mix acrylic and oil. You can put oil on acrylic, but you cannot put acrylic on oil. So, sometimes because I have a lot of acrylic, I buy a canvas and I put the acrylic on very thick, and I’ll get a very beautiful ocean. Then on the ocean with oil paints, I’ll paint ships.
Beyond painting, what are your hobbies?
Everyday I’m in the gym. Every morning, I take my wife to work and then I go to the gym. I like to sport. In the Marine Corps, I would always sport. I don’t want to stop it, because it keeps you healthy.
What’s next for you? Are you working on any projects at the moment?
I have one, but it’s a secret. I want to make a very special painting, but I don’t know how to realise it yet.
What other artists or paintings do you like?
Monet, I like the paintings from Monet.
Van Gogh. I like this cornfield with birds, black birds; I don’t know the name in English. This painting, I like it very much [he is referring to Van Gogh’s 1890 painting, Wheatfield with Crows]. If you look at this painting you think it’s not so special at first, but if you know the story about him…I think he killed himself – other people say that somebody killed him because he was shot in a field.
When I see this painting, and the fields and the blackbirds, I think, what was in the mind of this man who they said was crazy? When he was young, he had a difficult youth and very different parents. He made 800 pictures and sold only one in his life. So for his time, he was different. To be different in 2018, it’s very, very difficult. In Holland you have so many painters – everyone is painting – and you have all these academics from the schools where they learn how to paint. So I don’t want to do that, I want to just paint from inside. If you look at a painting from me, then you know ‘Okay, this is Fred.’
You can find Fred’s work at Cosecha design store in Oranjestad. For more information, view their website at http://www.arubacosecha.com/.