Xiamen is the sister city of Wellington and situated north of Hong Kong on the coast .

The above painting I made some time ago and was inspired about my arrival in New Zealand as an immigrant from Holland.

The painting is called " Arriving in the sea of different views" oil painting on canvas , 5300 x 2900 mm

About the Symbolism

The crescent moon to me is like a ship in the sky , or scythe to harvest, a vessel or basket . etc

To me the eyes are like throwing a sense of consciousness into the objects .

About the shape of the eyes . to me the waves of the ocean are the eyelids of the ocean.

When one draws a positive line and a negative line one ends up with a eye , but it could also symbolise two fish meeting .

The mountains are symbolised as Pyramids , because they are mysterious , they hide things from view and also the summit is where the Gods dwell .

In the painting one can also find the presence of the Taniwha and Tuna the eel , but also can be a dragon .

About the symbolism in my works

When one looks on a sunny day on the surface of the water, one can see suggested characters .

I took the numbers 1 till 10 and threw them on that surface .

I don't want my works to be read , but yet the characters suggest a language.

The effect is that it can travel between the floor boards of cultures . it give also the works a sense of motion and timelessness



I have decided that I would like to gift this painting to the Xiamen Association as a gift to the city in China .

Ps this painting has now been kindly rejected on grounds that the air freight was to high .

Well at least I offered and it will stay around till the right moment will come to depart.