It’s funny how a piece of art in one branch of the discipline can lead to ramblings on another, in a different branch. A blessed interconnectedness! About a year ago I browsed videoart.net, a website dedicated to an eponymous offshoot of cinematic artistic expression, watched a few videos, and even registered. There are some stunning clips there, and it’s worth a visit. One episode in particular (can’t remember which) caught my attention: recorded by a hand held camera, it presented a series of takes and images seen from first person view; one of the scenes dwelt for a few seconds on the shoes of the camera person, from the exact same angle that you see in the painting below.
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It may be hard to believe that these landscapes are contained each within an approximately 10×10 inches frame, but the reproductions before you are not very far from the actual size. I think that there are two different consequences to consider as a result: first, the artist creates a credible illusion of a generous spatial reserve and second, he leaves you wanting for more, and of a bigger size — and the first condition indicates that it is within his artistic range. And by “more” I also mean zooming both in and out, though some pieces satisfy that wish at least partially. I can’t help recalling of some of Ivan Shishkin’s works when studying Jiddje’s, though the differences outweigh the similarities.
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Jiddje Straatsma is a Dutch painter and graphic designer who works in a wide range of genres, including landscape, still life and portraits, and publishes his work on the Internet on this website and this blog. Jiddje is outspoken about his hard work ethic and demanding self criticism; I would like to bring to your attention how his paintings oscillate between realism and impressionism, different pieces careening towards either style, in a way reflecting this struggle. In traditional terms his artwork offers soft impressionism, considerably tamed, or “civilized” by realist figuration — reflecting some of John Singer Sargent’s ambitions. Similarly to the American master, one can identify in Jiddje’s work a search towards a unique personal adaptation of the two trends, seeking an individual original coalescence. That is not an easy task even without considering the competition, and Jiddje holds his own.
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