Paintings by Jon Eiselin (South Africa)

After his last visit home, Jon Eiselin, a South African artist currently based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, moved from a figurative to a non-figurative style of painting.

What triggered this was the result of a number of experiences during his stay. He spent most of his time on Durban’s South Coast where he was inspired by the liveliness of the people, the bright sunlight, the abundance of colour, heat and water in its variety of forms. The impressive energy of the ocean and its waves, the currents and meandering rivers, the reflecting puddles, the saline harbour and the scattering of the vivid blues of refreshing swimming pools in the urban areas definitely also had a profound influence on him.

Eiselin had already decided it was time to change his theme to ‘Water’. As the opportunity to act on this decision had presented itself, he started doing sketches for a first series of water related paintings. They eventually resulted in playful compositions that, like water, appear to drift, float, flow and glide over his canvases. Unlike his former figurative paintings, these new compositions seem to spread beyond the limits of the canvas, as if one sees only a part of a much larger whole. Because they have no particular focal point, Eiselin refers to these fluid images as being ‘borderless and open-ended’. The titles to his paintings are usually directly related to his observations.

Contact:
- Jon Eiselin: joneiselin@hetnet.nl, www.joneiselin.com