Sebastian van Houten (1976)
The Netherlands

Painting for me is synonym to artistic freedom. Where in my work as an interior designer I am challenged to handle budget issues, differences in taste and the willingness to take risks, painting gives me carte blanche. It is my way of dealing with this realistic restriction. Thus painting ables me to put all my inspiration and creativity into practise, which results in diverse work.

The tension between abstract and realism I find particularly interesting. It encourages me to keep searching for new subjects and compositions and to combine different materials and techniques.

Working with large formats gives an extra dimension to my work, as it makes it even more difficult to recognise the imagery in a single glance. And it is exactly that impression and difference I want to make. Go astray of the obvious. A certain arrangement of layers which lie near each other or remote. Which without the necessary concentration is difficult to perceive and to contain …