Frans Bleiji' Dreamworld

SA.E.DA. EDITORS

FRANS BLEIJI

FRANS’ DREAMWORLD [La bottega di Frans] a project of prof. dr. dr. Salvatore Costantino

© SAEDA EDITORS

realized by F.A.W.A. - ITALY

PROJECT 2017: Prof. Dr. Dr. S. Costantino 0039.388.8333.554 profcostantino.fineart@gmail.com

http://costantinoartcritic.xoom.it

Introduction Frans Bleiji is an artist already known to Italian public. He is proposed to you with the usual grace and attention to details, which has contraddistinguished our work for so many times. Following the work of F.B. is very interesting and it brings us immediately into an atmosphere and a mildeuropean environment of great level. Our Artist has exhibited in many prestigious “art squares” and he has received many awards, but the real prize, he receives, is the success of public that every kermesse, organized in his honor, brigs to him. For F.B. to paint is to live and to read life. Many critics have called him “master of trompe l’oeil”, which makes a painting more realistic of reality itself [just remember all mythical and mythilogical stories that speak of this ancient art already dear to the Greeks and Romans, and than to the best artists in the history of European painting, to understand what high artistic level we are talking about]. You must read his works even with the eyes of the mind and with a disposition of mind that distinguishes us from the man who runs every day to take a train and he find always himself at the starting point.........................

F. B. followers and fans should not be fooled by the relative simplicity with which this beautiful artist seems to fill his canvas. Behind every brushstroke, behind every nuance, there is a precise mathematical calculation, an artist dressed in shades and colors, a toymaker that prepares beautiful ninjas for naive children. Follow me and I will guide you to the Frans Bleiji color and magic shop.

Prof. Dr. Dr. Salvatore Costantino

Contents Introduction - 5 The latest Supplies - 7 The Toymaker - 15 Still Lifes - 33 Those little ancient... - 47 A la Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan - 55 Some infos about Frans Bleiji - 63

THE LATEST SUPPLIES

F.B. 7

[At artist’s studio, 50 X 80 cm, oil on linen]

Visiting the studio of an ar-

tist like Frans Bleiji is not an easy task, nor you do it everyday.

Viewer of Art, art lover might think of being in a wonderful shop of a toymaker or antiques of an old European city of a hundred years ago, but, in doing and thinking so, they would fall in the sweet deception that Master Bleiji architects at the expense of his admirers and his public. Bleiji has absolute knowledge of the design, all encompassing attention to the classic rules of perspective, and also he is a master of shadows and lighting effects. An artist who dares to focus all of his paintings and he invests all his being in the painting technique of trompe l’oeil must be sure

“AT ARTIST’S STUDIO”, 50 cm X 80 cm, Euro 2950 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela di lino

“CABINET WITH ENAMEL 1”, 60 cm X 40 cm, Euro 2400 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

F.B. 9

of his painting skills, but also of his own conception. Bleiji refers to the great Dutch painting tradition (master of the art of trompe l’oeil - deceives the eye), but he is also able to go further back in time, fully drawing on the great masters who have perfected this painting technique (think, for example, the teaching and tradition of Giotto, Masaccio, Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti), but he did not disdain the knowledge of the work of artists such as Escher, Dali, Rivera, Harnett and Boilly Louis Léopold. As for the colors, Bleiji has absolute mastery of their use across the board but also the nuances; therefore, I have to assume also the knowledge of precise techniques and strictly subject to the rules

“EGGS”, 30 cm X 40 cm, Euro 1800 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela di lino

“CABINET WITH TOYS 2”, 56 cm X 101 cm, Euro 8000 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

of both mathematics of geometry, to ensure the desired effect.

Brushes, tin pencil boxes of different colors and shades, bottle and especially a celestial dirt pall (that hangs off a shelf) are at disposition of the visual trap that Bleiji prepares to the viewer.

Yes, because the trompe l’oeil should also assume a careful study of the observer’s point of view (compared to the painting).

F.B. 11

“LET’S PLAY”, 40 cm X 30 cm, Euro 1800 Oil on Canvas - Olio su tela

[Cabinet with enamel, 60 X 40 cm, oil on panel]

Master Frans Bleiji’s pri-

mary goal, rather basic, when he paints Cabinet with Enamel, is purely to induce in the observer the illusion to be looking real and three-dimensional objects, while in fact these same objects are painted on a two-dimensional surface. The vocation to painting is deeply felt in Bleiji, which declares clearly to carry on a personal path and his own individual artistic career. It is a pleasure to see this painter’s work, because from the first moment you notice that he is a cultured and refined artist - though slyly and loves to play hide - and certainly he is not an artist that proceeds at random, guided the fashion of the moment and experiencing a thousand roads

“PEARS”, 50 cm X 50 cm, Euro 2400 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela di lino F.B. 13

without running never a way through the mixture of colors of this painting is spectacular, sophisticated to the smallest detail and full of mathematical logic. In the right wing there is light (and Bleiji looks for it; in fact, he has planned to light the artwork from left to right) and more vivid colors, bright red with black, blue and yellow. In the left wing, there are white enamels and shadows, which together with the cork give the background of the scene objects, randomly placed.

The ladle even hung outside the cabinet and a bottleneck, which crosses the light and shadow (light and dark), help in fooling the high of the viewer.

THE TOYMAKER

F.B. 15

“SCOOTER GIRL”, 38 cm X 63 cm, Euro 2400 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“BOWLINGPIN”, 80 cm X 80 cm, Euro 3500 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela

“BLUE TRUCK”, 75 cm X 54 cm, Euro 2950 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“RED TRUCK”, 58 cm X 52 cm, Euro 2950 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

F.B. 17

[Cabinet with toys 2, 55 X 76 cm, oil on panel]

Frans Bleiji is definitely

an interpreter passionate and sensitive, when it creates the perfect blend of colors used to evoke - and/or create - an almost magical world of very special atmosphere, which is halfway between the world of childhood, the world of unreality and world of reality.

Even the shadows come to life and play to give a tone, to build a volume. There is all the paraphernalia of the children’s games: the top, the toy car, the two clowns, the little box, the boxes, the Disney character Donald Duck, the truck etc. All paintings are perfectly identical to the real, indeed the real goal is that they seem more real than the real. On the color palette of Bleiji, blue and red dominate; they also serve to give body to the painting that tends to take on depth and complexity.

“RUSTY”, 50 cm X 70 cm, Euro 2950 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela di lino

“PUPPET ON A STRING”, 72 cm X 52 cm, Euro 2950 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

F.B. 19

“NOSTALGIC�, 50 cm X 67 cm, Euro 2700 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

For those reasons, Bleiji needs to paint a postcard in the right background and a car (and even a tin) on the top shelf. Deception is served! All toys seem to rest on a protruding chest of drawers, from which even the clown lying on the right dangles shoes. It is not easy what Bleiji can do with mathematical precision, but showing a seraphic calm: he gives the illusion that the internal environment space designed to be far wider than it is actually. Difficult pictorial goal.

[Eggs, 30 X 40 cm, oil on linen]

Frans Bleiji is a perfect set designer and

he has inherent in himelf the taste of pictorial photography, which is very useful in the preparation of classical subjects such as still life, the products of nature or eggs, when he decides that these are his best allies in his personal pictorial path. The technique, which uses masterstroke, is a natural technique and old. It is based on the use of chiaroscuro and perspective, reproducing reality in such a way that the preparation concocted by the artist seem quite real to the viewer. Bleiji knows that the probable simulation of the physical world creates a subtle play of references between reality and perceptual illusion. Modern audiences love to get lost in this and in turn they know how to lose the limitations imposed by “UGLY DUCK�, 36 cm X 61 cm, Euro 2400 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

F.B. 21

[F.B. 22-23] “CABINET WITH TOYS”, 73 cm X 55 cm, Euro 2950 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

the phenomenological world.

The light illuminates from the right. Eggs and enameled pot are highlighted; the knife is used to give the illusion of depth as well as the red nail that sticks out from the shelf, by contrast with the geometry of the plane. A job very well done!

“WORLD FAIR”, 75 cm X 60 cm, Euro 2950 Oil on Canvas Olio su tela

“CABINET WITH BOXES”, 60 cm X 40 cm, Euro 2400 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

F.B. 25

“DAMAGE BY A BALL”, 95 cm X 60 cm, Euro 3500 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela di lino

“KING SCOOTER”, 60 cm X 40 cm, Euro 2400 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela di lino

F.B. 27

“VROEM VROEM”, 35 cm X 94,5 cm, Euro 2950 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

[Let’s play, 40 X 30 cm, oil on canvas]

In this painting, all the attention of

Master Bleiji focused on the eye of the observer. It must have cost a lot of effort the perfect layout of the scene with circular and rectangular shapes, so arranged as to give the idea of space, even where there is not. The lighting from right to left and shadows serve to give consistency to the painted objects, that might seem in motion, as if the spinner and the marbles were going to fall off the shelf plane. It designed a children’s world, but the eyes are those of an adult. The adherence to the rules of perspective is a mathematical precision, as well as the color mixture, that simply describes a range of colors and shades really interesting. The poker card under the shelf serves to give the illusion of space and certainly the provision of the scene is the height of that of a master of direction. A very interesting test for this artist; the painting draws fascinatingly and incomprehensibly the attention of any observer. Looking at the painting on the bias and sides, you really understand how much Bleiji was good at painting this subject.

“GOOFY”, 50 cm X 42 cm, Euro 2200 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

F.B. 29

[Pears, 50 X 50 cm, oil on linen]

A still life very interesting and a pic-

torial test very important for this Artist. Our Artist feels heir of a long tradition and he does not flinch before any test, always trying to make a small step forward in his personal artistic path.

Frans Bleiji must not be a superstitious type, because, so often working with shadows, he has an absolute contiguity with a very special and dangerous element. In the ancient world, especially in Greece, the word, which described the concept of shadow, was in itself the bearer of ambiguity. The shadow is not only the appearance of being, but it is also a reflection of the living. Skiagrafia meant painting made on the basis of the shadow reflected, the design which traced the outline. The painting Pears is the apotheosis of the shadows. Everything hinges on three floors, which simulate a depth that exists only for the viewer’s eyes, and the color palette of Bleiji is minimized. Few colors (green, white, brown, yellow), a thousand shades. Definitely a copyright trial worthy of mention.

“LET’S HAVE FUN”, 80 cm X 60 cm, Euro 3200 Oil on Canvas Olio su tela F.B. 31

STILL LIFES

“PLUMS”, 36,5 cm X 36,5 cm, Euro 1700 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“BREAKFAST”, 36 cm X 51 cm, Euro 2200, Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

Why a mere spectator, an art amateur, should be fond of the dying lives painted by Frans Bleiji? Not just for a simple aesthetic and artistic reason, but also because - and here I’m easy prophet! - Bleiji’s paintings will soon reach quotes, which few will allow. We think, however, that art is a beautiful and highly democratic form of communication, that should be aimed at the enjoyment of all men and women. The beauty of the colors, the design, the naturalness that is enclosed in every single painting, painted by Bleiji, make it a small masterpiece, which would be great to be able to observe, relaxing on the sofa of your living room, looking for consolation after a long and a tiring day of work. It would be nice to be able to stretch out your hands and grasp those wonderful fruits painted on the canvas ... but it’s just a deception ... and maybe, even the real world is a deception. Nothing is as it appears!

F.B. 35

“EGGS 3”, 23,5 cm X 45,5 cm, Euro 1500 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola “GRANNY’S 1”, 40 cm X 100 cm, Euro 3400 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela di lino

“EGGS 2”, 24 cm X 24 cm, Euro 1100 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

F.B. 37

“CABINET 3”, 53 cm X 102 cm, Euro 3800 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“TOMATOES 2”, 90 cm X 60 cm, Euro 3400 Oil on Canvas - Olio su tela

“SMALL PLUMS”, 22 cm X 22 cm, Euro 1100 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

F.B. 39

“MEETING”, 24 cm X 73 cm, Euro 2100 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“COLLECTED ENAMEL”, 40 cm X 132 cm, Euro 3800 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“STILL LIFE WITH APLES”, 49 cm X 50 cm, Euro 2400 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola F.B. 41

“TOMATOES 1”, 40 cm X 132 cm, Euro 3800 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“EGGS ENOUGH” 50 cm X 44,5 cm, Euro 2200 Oil on Panel Olio su tavola

“FALLING EGGS”, 34 X 33 cm, Euro 1700 Oil on Panel Olio su tavola

“BIG MEETING”, 40 cm X 100 cm, Euro 3400 Oil on Canvas - Olio su tela

F.B. 43

“STILL LIFE WITH NUTS”, 40 cm X 35 cm, Euro 1800 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“STILL LIFE WITH DECANTER”, 30 cm X 33 cm, Euro 1500 Oil on Panel Olio su tavola

“GRANNY’S 2”, 36 cm X 61 cm, Euro 2400 Oil on Panel Olio su tavola

F.B. 45

“BOTTLES”, 40 cm X 35 cm, Euro 1800 ??

Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“PEACHES”, 31 cm X 40 cm, Euro 1800 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela di lino “STILL LIFE WITH PEARS”, 65 cm X 45 cm, Euro 2600, Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“PEPPERMILL”, 40 cm X 30 cm, Euro 1700 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela di lino

THOSE LITTLE ANCIENT BEAUTIFUL IMPORTANT THINGS OF OUR DAILY LIFE

F.B. 47

[Frans Bleiji’s Statement]

Art of trompe-l’oeil has been practised since

the time of Ancient Greeks, but few people are aware of its exstense or they have ever seen a example of it. It has not been produced in great quantity, unlike subject painting, landscape and still life, though it often resembles the latter and it shares a certain feeling of intimacy.

Trompe-l’oeil does not tell a story. It is unemotional as it is clever.

Trompe-l’oeil artist aims to create a illusion convincing enough to deceive the eye of the beholder by making a flat surface appear three-dimensional, when the painting is finished. Thus, in a sense, his technical skill is meant to go undected, which is not the usual case where works of art are connected.

The artistic genre is essentially decorative and ambigious and, purely practised, involves following principles: an intent to decive, perfect perspective in rendering the subject in order to achieve three-dimensional illusion, the exclusion of stylistic interference, and a surface treated as a whole entity. Trompe-l’oeil artist will not leave anything to the imagination. He will not allow interpretation beyond what he represents. Whenever he does, though incorporating elements of trompe-l’oeil in his composition and retaining his impeccable technique, he is then using it to emphasize his work’s decorative aspect at the expense of pure trompe-l’oeil.

That’s why the artist is very fond of the trompe-l’oeil, it is fantastic to see, over and over again, how the beholder is putting on the wrong leg, also the reactions, who are in fact infinite, are fantastic and make it worth to continue this work with great pleasure.

“BREATHER”, 110 cm X 55 cm, Euro 3800, Oil on Canvas - Olio su tela F.B. 49

“FROM THE PAST”, 55 cm X 110 cm, Euro 3500 Oil on Canvas - Olio su tela

“CABINET 1”, 73 cm X 55 cm, Euro 2950 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“T FORD & MARBLES”, 30 cm X 40 cm, Euro 1800 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela di lino

“VERMEER’S GIRL”, 90 cm X 80 cm, Euro 3650 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

F.B. 51

“TALENS POSTER”, 90 cm X 60 cm, Euro 3400 Oil on Canvas - Olio su tela

“WOODEN SPOON”, 42 cm X 33 cm, Euro 1700 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“BLUE DOOR LEFT”, 44,5 cm X 30 cm, Euro 1800 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“ENAMEL”, 50 cm X 40 cm, Euro 2200 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

“BLUE DOOR RIGHT”, 44,5 cm X 30 cm, Euro 1800 Oil on Panel - Olio su tavola

F.B. 53

“ANATEVKA”, 90 cm X 70 cm, Euro 3350 Oil on Canvas - Olio su tela

A LA PIETER CORNELIS MONDRIAAN

F.B. 55

“APPLES AND PEARS”, 60 cm X 60 cm, Euro 2700 Oil on Canvas Olio su tela

The last game of the toymaker, Frans Bleiji, is called “a la Mondriaan”. Our Artist is fascinated by the art of Mondriaan and he reinterprets his pictorial road with originality.

Frans is interested in painting realism and he has inaugurated a new personalized pictorial way that he calls “hand in hand”.

The fans will see soon from the colors, the shades, the intensity of the design that we are not talking here of an easy and simple imitator, but of a really great talent.

Fruits, enamels, toys, simple ware are inserted in two differents frames, the natural and the mathematical, because of before he realizes a painting, observers must know that the artist calculates every mathematical and geometrical possibilities to shape a perfect, real scene of life.

“BLACK AND BLUE”, 70 cm X 50 cm, Euro 2700 Oil on Canvas - Olio su tela

“COFFEETIME”, 60 cm X 60 cm, Euro 2700 Oil on Canvas Olio su tela

F.B. 57

“CLOWN ON A BIKE”, 30 cm X 30 cm, Euro 1500 Oil on Linen - Olio su tela di lino

“GRANNY’S 2”, 60 cm X 80 cm, Euro 2700 Oil on Canvas Olio su tela

“CLOWN ON A BOX ”, 50 cm X 40 cm, Euro 2200 Oil on Canvas Olio su tela

“FALLING TOMATO”, 60 cm X 60 cm, Euro 2700 Oil on Canvas Olio su tela

F.B. 59

“GRANNY 3”, 60 cm X 60 cm, Euro 2700 Oil on Canvas Olio su tela

“RED CAR” 30 cm X 40 cm, Euro 1700 Oil on Canvas Olio su tela

“GRANNY 4”, 60 cm X 60 cm, Euro 2700 Oil on Canvas Olio su tela

“WHITE ENAMEL” 40 cm X 60 cm, Euro 2400 Oil on Panel Olio su tavola

F.B. 61

“UNPERTURBED”, 40 cm X 30 cm, Euro 1700 Oil on Canvas - Olio su tela

FRANS BLEIJI and a friend

SOME INFOS ABOUT FRANS BLEIJI

Frans Bleiji was born in Leiden.

He made his first steps in the art field in 1984 at the Volksuniversity in Vlaardingen. His teacher noticed the progress he made in a short time and he gave him the advice to start an education at the Academy. So, in 1986, he followed courses at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. In the second year he leave it because lessons became too abstract and this won’t fit at his way of working. He was going his own way and he became a self-thaught artist.

He work a lot with technique of trompe-l’oeil, where it look likes objects been stuck on or pinned to the canvas.

He is a dreamer and a toymaker for the phantasy of kids and adults.

People bend over and involuntary they want to feel with their fingers whether the push pin has or if it has not actually been inserted into the canvas. It hasn’t [One of many notables reactions to Frans Bleiji’s work].

F.B. 63

While using the technique of chiaroscuro and especially trompel’oeil, Frans succeeds in breathtakingly capturing the essence of the subject and the underlyig thoughts. But he is not an artist who likes to tie himself down to one particular way of working although his approach should always contain a aspect of realism. Whatever course he chooses to pursue, realism will always be part of the new route.

His recent work is a fusion of “work after Mondriaan” and realism in a series of work he would like to call “hand in hand”.

And no matter what he produces, the same things always seems to come together in his work because of the fact - and this is certainly worth mentioning here - that Frans Bleiji is always searching for the third dimension on the flat surface [for this he was given the nickname “the shadow artist” in an important newspaper article].

Frans is a self-thaught artist who decided to teach himself everything he needed to know in his way.

SA.E.DA EDITORS Printed in Italy 2017