Wim de Vos
Until his death in 2018 Wim de Vos was a practising artist whose repertoire included painting, printmaking, sculpture and artists books. He was born in the Netherlands in 1947 and migrated to Australia with his family in 1959. From the mid sixties to the late seventies Wim was involved in Graphic design, the family window display business and the popular music scene. He played with a number of well-known rock bands and Australian singers in many of Brisbane's discos and performance venues. His bands were support acts with such overseas greats as the Hollies, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, Roy Orbison, and Santana, to name a few.
His study credits include both studies in Commercial Art, and Fine Art with honours in Printmaking at Queensland College of Art. He undertook post graduate studies at the Jan van Eyck Academie Maastricht, the Netherlands, specialising in etching, lithography,and bookmaking during 1981-82.
Wim has exhibited regularly in Queensland, interstate and internationally since 1979. His work is represented in public and private collections and publications in Australia, USA, UK, and the Netherlands. He has taught extensively in public and private institutions since 1983 throughout Australia and has judged many regional art exhibitions in Queensland over the years. For many years he conducted mentoring sessions and regular classes with Adele Outteridge at the Studio West End, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
The book format as part of my visual expression is always a great opportunity to give the viewer a 'landscape storyline' relating to a sequence of events with multiple images. I have made many books recording landscapes from the North Queensland tropics to within other parts of Australia, Europe, USA, UK and lately within Australia's Island State of Tasmania. The other factor is the design of books with their infinite possibilities. It is always challenging and a great adventure to fit the story within a structure or design the structure which may then become a container(s) or sculpture, around it. Concertina books give that marvellous element of surprise by being able to be looked into as individual pages, or by viewing the story all at once.
As I work rapidly when making art works, I have done continuous soundscapes & landscapes with acrylic paint on paper that may be up to 3600 x 320 mm long. Each page may be viewed as an individual painting or, simply by folding out more pages, parts may be revealed by selection, eventually discovering the whole painting which may also continue on the reverse of the book pages.
When this beautiful traditional Chinese book was presented to me, with its patterned papers and silk covers, I felt it needed to be kept 'pristine'. It was important the image areas within, were to be square and clean also. The execution of the fragments which are memory paintings and mono prints are selected cut outs from other works, and relate to a journey I undertook to Tasmania at the end of 2012. The Island State of Tasmania with its diverse climate and visual natural wonders has been an inspiration and passion to express over the last year.
I hope you enjoy my journey within.
Artist’s book: Weather Changes! Tasmania, 2014
Acrylic on paper, Mono Prints, oil based inks on paper
Photograph by Adele Outteridge