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ARTIST ARTHUR BERNARD /CV..
NETHERLAND BELGIUM

About Arthur Bernard - the artistI..
was born in 1939 in an old town with an important medieval history called Mechelen.
At the age of 15 I attended the Academy of Fine Arts in the same town because I had been drawing ever since I was born. I did not finish my study at the academy, mainly because at that time there was so much to discover and to visit. I also felt that the program was too conservative, I wanted more. Years later I realised I was just too young and too much of a rebel and I went back to study at other academies to improve various techniques.
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At that time I read a book by André Malraux and there was one sentence that stroke me and which I have never forgotten ever since “J’appele artiste celui qui invente des formes et artisan celui qui les copie’’.
I realised that to paint very realistic paintings of landscapes and figures was not enough for me. It needed to be more. But how? How could I add emotion to my painting? At that time I started painted from my heart instead of from my head. I also started painting from memory. The remains of images, not what I had seen but what was left of that particular moment.
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At first I thought painting was an evolution from figurative to abstract. Mondriaan is a fine example. But that is not the way I work. I switch from figurative to abstract work. The drawing is always visible in my paintings and important to me. I think total abstractism does not give enough emotion to a painting. I need just a slight touch of figuration in my paintings, the challenge for me and the best results are created by adding abstractism to a painting.
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When I start working on a virgin canvas I do not know what the result is going to be. I write on the canvas with lots of paint or even rags of poetry for example. There is always music playing in the background. I do not like to paint in silence. Even when I work in the garden I hear music. Stravinsky and Gorecki are my favourites at this moment. This music sometimes makes me feel uncomfortable, but I want to get out of that feeling and the thus the struggle begins. I always hope to finish a painting in one day, but it is not possible. I sometimes start with figuration and end, days or weeks later, with a landscape. I never work on one painting until it is finished. I paint on a painting until I do not know what to do to improve it. Sometimes I am pleased with myself when I finish a painting at night, only to realise the next morning that it is not good enough. I turn it upside down and start all over again. My wife often asks me: “what happened to the painting you did a couple a days ago, I liked it a lot. Did you sell it?” No, I simply did not like it.
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In de past I always wanted to find out the reason of things (the reason of life), I think it was the movie “Lost Highway” by David Lynch that changed my mind. It is not necessary to find the reason. Let it come over you, absorb what you see, what you hear. I love to paint every day from morning till night. But that is not always possible, as clients and gallery-owners come to visit me. I have to talk to people about exhibitions, have an enjoyable social life and so on. When I go to sleep and I know the next day is for painting I can hardly sleep, as I have already started painting in my mind. When I get up the next morning I know exactly what to do. Only when I stand before my canvas I realise I have completely forgotten what it was I wanted to paint, and spend the rest of the day wondering what is to come out of my brushes.
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“The world of a happy man is different from that of the unhappy man” (Wittgenstein / tractatus logico) became my motto. I learned to accept what became of me, the people around me and the way they are. Although I find painting difficult, I can not live without it. I am very happy with my life as a painter.
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Last week I had an opening of an exhibition and while talking to visitors there was one person, whom I asked if she liked my paintings, she said to me “There is always hope in your paintings”, this was something I had never heard before and at first I was so surprised that I forgot to ask her what she meant by her comment. But again, it was not important to know the reason why she said it. That it had given her that feeling, made me feel good.
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ARTHUR BERNARD.. Born in Mechelen ( Belgium ).
Worked in Belgium, France and the United States of America
Nowadays lives and works in Maasdam ( Hoeksewaard, the Netherlands)
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STUDIES:
Koninklijke academie voor Schone Kunsten, Mechelen
Vrije Academie, Rotterdam
Workshops: Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Rotterdam

RECENT EXPOSITIONS

ASSIGNMENTS / COLLECTIONS (a selection)

Astra Farmaceutische Industrie, Zoetermeer
Quispel Assurantien, Rotterdam
Stad Rotterdam
BDO Campsobers, Dordrecht
Christelijke Scholengemeenschap, Rotterdam
Rotterdams Dagblad
Eneco, Dordrecht
Groenenboom Schildersbedrijven, Rotterdam
Fact Promotional Works,Rotterdam
Kanters Bouwbedrijf, Barendrecht
Pers C, Barendrecht – Robeco, Rotterdam