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 also several portraits of the notorious Dutch style icon Mathilde Willink, later shown in a 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 doing ILLUSTRATING WORK. Hard, but rewarding work. During these few years I learned more about painting and printing than in all the previous academy years.

In 1995 I decided to return into the art world with a collection of the PLAYFUL EROTICISM, a major theme in my work. It was an immediate success at the 1998 GayGames. 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 I became more and more interested in dramatic paintings, which turned into my MYTHOLOGY Series.

At that time the INTERNET came along and through my website mauriceheerdink.com I became able to show my work world wide. Suddenly people from Alaska to New York to Curacao purchased my work.

In 2004 I portrayed five DUTCH THEATER PERSONALITIES. I felt honored when these celebrities were pleased to cooperate. As a follow-up I started painting SELF-PORTRAITS.

Since 2013 I became seriously interested in other disciplines like Film and Music and I started creating SOUNDSCAPES to accompany my work.

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 2016 and 2017 in two WATERSCAPES.

In 2018 I started an art-collaboration with Berlin artist Ronny Strehmann.

– 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.