Peterten

Peter ten Lohuis paints parts of the body, without a head and therefore without a face, to come to the essence of the body. He photographs his models in his studio. He makes cut-outs from these photos, which forms the base of his paintings.

The canvas is not the traditional white canvas, but damask woven fabrics, fabrics with print or raw linen. These are stretched and prepared so that you can paint on them. The cloth is the skin, as a sculptor uses the grain of the wood or the structure of the stone, he uses the fabric. Textile plays an important role in his life. His father was already behind the loom as a twelve-year-old boy, his mother was a tailor and he himself has visited numerous textile companies all over the world.

The fabrics he uses are more than just the carrier of the paint. He wants to show both the material and the painting, whereby two worlds come together. Both the fabric and the painting are autonomous, but they also form a whole.

He consciously uses oil paint and old techniques, as a reference to the origins of our art and to maintain the tradition of the nude in art. He still uses materials such as white lead, hare hide glue, damar resin and turpentine. These materials are the basis for old recipes of painter’s products that were already used in the 17th century. This enables him to develop his own way of painting that makes both the painted image and the canvas on which he works visible.

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