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Art Tea

Meet the Dutch Painter Who Turns Adolescent Teen Boy Angst Into Fine Art

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The paintings of MartinJan van Santen, an artist from Holland are some of the most homoerotic paintings that seem almost as if candid snapshots.

Chasseur magazine said in a profile of Van Santen, when they asked the former animator and cartoonist, “Speaking of boys, you have such an eye for the male anatomy. Are there any specific body parts you find yourself most fascinated with?”

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Van Santen says, “The most fascinating about the male body are the belly and chest. I don’t really know why it is that intrigues me. Some people prefer the legs, or the bottom; I’m a ‘belly-man’, and sometimes a ‘chest-man’. I’m most interested in bodies that are muscular, but not too much. I love the subtle play of muscles beneath the skin. I seldom do six packs or bodybuilder-types. That’s way too much for me. I love to study the color and the light, and I never get bored in doing it again and again. But it’s not really about body parts. It is more about a good and interesting painting. I want the eventual image to be strong; more than a mere reference to a subject outside the painting, but actually become something that can ‘breath on its own’.”

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In your photos the models are very much at ease. What usually takes places prior the creative process? That depends on the model. I always have a conversation with them, while I make some sketches, so I get to know them a little. Then I just start clicking, and ask them to sit down, stand up, etc.

The first 50 photos never come off nice as the model is not yet at ease but after a while they relax and I make better photos.What also comes in handy are videos. I make a film while they pose in different positions, and afterwards I take stills out of the film. That way I have so much more material. It’s quite difficult to get a picture, in which they feel really comfortable with themselves, almost as if they forget they are on camera. There is no form of sensuality or overly sexual undertones in your work. It is truly an essence of simply being.

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What inspires you to stray away from the expected and deliver such genuine work?

The answer is as simple as that; I paint what I find beautiful. And beauty for me is a simple thing. No show, no lies or pretending, indeed simple being there and being yourself in an honest way. That’s what I’m trying to capture. I’m not deliberately telling stories or use metaphors, or make statements about anything. I’m always asking myself: I find this beautiful, but what is it, that makes it beautiful? In that way I’m going for the core, the essence. That’s why I’m also careful with heads and portraits in a painting (except the ones on commission). Portraits always tell a story and the spectator immediately has its meaning about it: you like the face or not, and if you don’t, you don’t like the image. This goes for private parts too: Suddenly the painting is about the private parts. And that’s not what my work is about. I’m just trying to share the beauty I find in a male body with the rest of the world.

Follow Van Santen on Instagram and visit his site here.

 

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