Echo van de Oceaan (Echo of the Ocean)

Warm light falls through the water from above: orange, peach and soft yellow, as the sun touches the surface. Further down the water grows deeper and cooler, through pink and lilac to turquoise and bright cobalt blue. In between, a reef of vivid colors blooms, red, green, purple and yellow, swaying with the current in rolling movements, while white dots rise like air bubbles. The fine lines are drawn with a thin brush, the thick paint is applied with a palette knife, and different tools were used for each of the shapes.

An echo is what lingers after the sound has passed. This canvas works the same way: it doesn’t bring the ocean itself into the home, but its resonance. The colors, the current and the life under water reverberate through the room, far from any coast.

Echo van de Oceaan is a commissioned artwork. The client was looking for a large canvas for the high wall in their home, in vivid colors that dare to fill the space. In the same house, ornamental fish swim in an aquarium, and that connection has been worked into the piece: somewhere between the shapes, a fish swims along. Those who know find the fish right away. Those who don’t may only discover it after a while.