Artwork by Joshua van Gestel

A series of works largely inspired by Joshua's journey through western Europe in 1997, the European Expressions series reflects the influence on the Artist of seeing works by artists who had long been admired and inspired, the exploration of the history and heritage of the Artist's family, and the discovery of a larger and very different world outside of his own. 

"The creation of this series saw a major leap forward in my passion for creating and for the amount of work I created. More importantly, the series saw a large step in the development of my own style - for the first time I truly allowed myself the freedom to experiment and paint freely, without comparing my own work to other artists or constraining what I was doing in an attempt to find technical correctness or mimic the styles of others."

In creating many of the works Joshua's only focus was to use as much colour as possible, contrasting many of the darker works produced in first impressions, in an attempt to sculpt the image from the canvas.

 

"It was the first time in my life that I found absolute pleasure in painting and became addicted to creating."