STATEMENT JAN WILLEM PIETER ZANDVLIET LEIDEN 1969

An old man fighting with is his Saturday newspaper, in the middle of a squall.

A piano virtuoso with no identity staying in a English mental hospital.

These are moments of people or animals I can work with.

The emotions I get when thinking about such moments are the emotions I try to put on the canvas, paper, wood or whatever.

I don’t sketch, but before I start with a work I make a lot of drawings with felt-pen.

Throughout the years I strolled, like a journalist, through all kinds of subcultures. I did a lot of sports like football, cycle racing, fitness, triathlon and different kinds of fighting sports. Everywhere I was I looked for people who differed from the group. A black, English punk with a stately accent, heavily drinking beer. A lonely ultra long distance runner and lots of other likely matters, which sometimes brightly come in front in a work, but also often are drowned in several figures across the canvas.

I really love old stories about the sporting world, or any world. As long as they have something remarkable.

I take them to my chaotic studio and portrait them in a dreamy way.

As confusing as my interests, as confusing are the color contrasts and combinations of thick and thin lines in my work.

Some works are chaotic because I want to tell a story by way of image, other works are serene because I want to underline a specific subject.

I get a lot of inspiration out of big cities because there are a lot of extraordinary people, although you have to search selectively.

But in the Dutch polders, where I often cruise with my scooter, a frolic cow that leaves a stunned horde can really amaze me.

Or a (like he calls it) ghost figure*, that wonders around on a Spanish mountain also fascinates me.

I rarely make any contact with the subjects, because that would disturb the magic and would make them worthless for my work.

* A person who looks like a ghost…..weird and unreal.