The Artist
Ever since I was born I held a pencil in my hand. It was evident that I would go to the Royal Art Academy in The Hague to become an artist. But nobody warned me that this meant a life of praises and poverty.
From my earliest exhibitions on I showed theme-series.
During extended travels through Middle America I made a series about the MAYA ICONOGRAPHY of which I am still very proud.
On the other hand I was fascinated by MOVIES and SHOWBIZ and created a series including Liza Minnelli, Eartha Kitt, Milva, Quentin Crisp and the notorious Dutch style icon Mathilde Willink, later shown in books and tv-documentary.
After the romance of poverty wore off – “there is a time to be artistic and a time to be realistic (Burt Reynolds)” – I started ILLUSTRATING WORK. Hard work, but rewarding. In a few years I learned more about painting, printing and the bussiness than in all the academy years.
In 1995 I decided to return into the art world with my PLAYFUL EROTICISM, a major theme in my work. It was an immediate success at the 1998 GayGames in Amsterdam. That same year I won First Prize Public Award during the Jesus Mystery Exhibition.
The appeal of my BODYSCAPES lies in the fact that I leave something to the imagination of the viewer. Everybody has his own beauty-ideal and I think it is the right, if not the obligation, of an artist to exploit his. But with discovering Caravaggio (thanks to Derek jarman) I became more interested in dramatic paintings, which started my MYTHOLOGY Series.
At that time the INTERNET came along and through my website www.mauriceheerdink.com I became able to show my work world wide. Suddenly collectors from Alaska to New York to Curacao purchased my work.
In 2004 I had the honor to portray five DUTCH THEATER PERSONALITIES. As a follow-up I started painting SELF-PORTRAITS.
Since 2013 I became seriously interested in disciplines like Film and Music and I started creating SOUNDSCAPES to accompany my work-videos.
In November 2014 a collection of my best works was published in the book THE ART OF MAURICE HEERDINK.
My spending more and more time in nature resulted in several WATERSCAPES.
In 2018 I met Berlin artist RONNY STREHMANN. Our collaboration is resulting, among others, in MUSIC VIDEOS and SHORTFILMS.
– Maurice Heerdink
Maurice paints, draws, writes, illustrates, photographs, films, makes music, teaches and speaks in public.
He lives in The Netherlands.
VISITS TO HIS STUDIO GALLERY BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.