UPPER PLAYGROUND
ALL CREATIVITY IS BORN IN THE QUALITY OF PLAY
THE ART OF PLAY
THE CREATIVE POWER OF PLAY
THE FREEDOM TO CREATE WITH LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE
IN THE UPPER PLAYGROUND
SO DON’T STOP
LET’S CYCLE UP!
MY LATEST POSTS (see also at bottom of page)
- Exhibition of my paintings and UP-cycled jewellery & bags from 1st until 24 of February 2024 in Deventer
- MY SPRAYPAINTINGS
- Stop being afraid
- ‘Thinking about you’
- Le Penseur
1 – 24 February: EXHIBITION OF MY PAINTINGS AND UP-CYCLED JEWELLERY & BAGS
From the 1st until the 24nd of February 2024 my paintings and my UP-cycled jewellery, bags and belts will be exhibited in Galerie DNA in Het Bergkwartier in Deventer: https://www.galeriedna.nl/expositie-agenda. Here are the paintings that will be on show (and for sale), and a selection of my UP-cycled pieces. Click here for the full collection of my UP-cycled pieces.
60 x 50 x 2 cm – € 600
100 x 70 x 2 cm – € 850
100 x 70 x 2 cm – € 850
80 x 60 x 2 cm – € 750
80 x 60 x 2 cm – € 750
70 x 50 x 2 cm – € 600
100 x 70 x 2 cm – € 750
50 x 40 x 1.5 cm – € 600
50 x 40 x 1.5 cm – € 600
UP-cycled chain – € 150
UP-cycled chain – € 150
UP-cycled chain – € 125
UP-cycled bracelet – € 100
UP-cycled bracelet – € 125
UP-cycled leather bag – € 200
UP-cycled leather bag – € 150
UP-cycled leather bag – € 200
UP-cycled bracelet – € 50
UP-cycled chain – € 150
UP-cycled chain – € 150
UP-cycled chain – € 125
UPPER PLAYGROUND – MY WORK AS A PAINTER, SPRAYPAINTER, COLLAGE ARTIST AND UP-CYCLE DESIGNER
Having worked for years as a freelance marketeer, publicity manager and event organiser for authors and publishers, I decided a few years ago to focus more on my work as an artist.
Since then I’ve been creating almost daily. My art consists mostly of: collage art and stencil art; acrylic portraits and distorted faces; abstract paintings and abstract graff; designing and creating ‘UP-cycle pieces’.
In my collage art and stencil art I experiment with a combination of text and images, self-written slogans/lyrics/poems, eyes/noses/ears/mouths from glossies, strange images and pieces of text from magazines, leftover paint, screws and bolts, etc. I combine them with acrylic paint, spray paint, posca markers, stencils and wasco chalk.
My acrylic portraits and distorted faces on canvas. I’m painting quite a lot of portraits now-a-days. I start out with a rough sketch on the canvas using wasco pencil and then put layer over layer of acryl paint on top of each-other, sometimes using a paintknive. Until it is … finished, which it never really is. I also call them My Distorted Faces because they are a bit crazy sometimes.
For my UP-cycle pieces I give pre-used bracelets, necklaces, buttons, beads, leather bags, leather belts, etc. a new life. Often by taking them apart completely and putting them together in a very different way. So I ‘UP-cycle’ them, with a little nod to my artist name Upper Playground and my logo UP with which I sign my paintings and my other works of art.
THE CREATIVE POWER OF CHANGE
I picked up my brush, pencil and pen again, after not having created for a long time. Drawing, painting and writing gave me wonderful ways to release my emotions and go through the changes.
I first started experimenting with pencil-drawings of famous black and white portrait photographs (of Anton Corbijn, mostly), which helped me to develop my own detailed drawing-style.
THE FREEDOM TO CREATE WITH LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE
After working in the publishing industry for years, I decided to start my own company UPPER PLAYGROUND (which is now my artist name) for freelance projects with authors and publishers, and to have more time for my work as an artist. Since then I’ve been creating almost daily: painting, spraypainting, writing, drawing, designing and creating up-cycle pieces like bracelets and necklaces.
THE CREATIVE POWER OF ART
I’m interested in, influenced by, love to work with, am inspired by Streetart and Urban Art, Japanese Superflat, Popart, Collage Art, Urban Vinyl Art and 3D art, manga and tattoo-art. I’ve always been fascinated with streetart. I’m always on the look out. In my own neighbourhood, when I walk around in my surrounding cities and when I’m traveling. I always seem to know where to find it, wherever I am. On lampposts and signposts, on bridges and structures, in those little side-streets nobody seems to be interested in, whole streets fully dedicated to streetart. The beauty, the fun, the meaning, the messages, the call for action, the call for change.
MY WORK AS A SPRAYPAINTER
I love streetart, stencil-art, tags and graffiti art. I started out using spraypaint on paper and then on canvas, still being a bit shy for trying it out in the streets. I used to visit an amazing spraypaint shop in Amsterdam, Henxs, just to look at their amazing collection of spraypaint cans and posca markers, their books on streetart and their skateboard clothes. Never failed to make me happy. My favourite shops have always been the ones that combine (street)art, books, music (preferably with someone behind a turntable) , graphic novels, vinyl art and skateboard fashion and accessories. That’s where the edge of the groove is. Anywhere in the world.
One day I just asked the guy behind the counter of Henxs to set me up with a starter-kit for spraypainting. He gave me some tips on how to spraypaint at home (water basis), some sjablones to try out, and six colours of spraypaint. And I was lost. For half a year I spraypainted and spraypainted and spraypainted. Trying out different materials, from different sorts and colours of paper, like crazy rolls of wallpaper, Japanese paper, sandpaper, sun bleach-paper, carbon paper, and fabrics, boxes, vinyl art poppets, and of course canvas and canvas board.
I design my stencils and sjablones with acrylpaint and Posca marker. First I try out different designs on paper, then I create a stencil from plastic and start experimenting with the design for a while with spraypaint. I now often use those designs again as a base for my canvas acrylpaint portraits and my collage art.
Click on the links below to see some of my series of spraypaintings:
Andy Warhol, Clint Eastwood, Salvador Dali, Miles Davis and Frida Kahlo, ‘Faces’, ‘Serious Man’, ‘Skull Art‘, ‘Gorillaz‘, ‘Self Portret‘.
MY WORK AS A PAINTER – STARTING OUT
I started experimenting with pencil-drawings of the amazing black & white portret-photo’s of Anton Corbijn, which helped me to discover and develop my portret-skills. A year later, again with the help of a wonderful artshop in Amsterdam that unfortunately doesn’t exist anymore, I set myself up with 10 different colours of acrylpaint, 10 brushes and some good quality paper. My paintings were then mostly figures (I cannot really call them human 🙂 I just put my brush down to see where it would end up. And then started experimening a bit with postures and emotions. They are very cute, and or strange, and or funny, and I still love looking at them.
I LOVE POSCA
I really love working with acrylpaint Posca markers. I use it to make spraypaint stencils, but also love to use it to create the first designs of new ideas I have. I now use it in almost all my paintings, combined with spraypaint, acrylpaint and wasco.
‘click here for my Posca Black & White Popart series’
MY OWN DESIGNED ALFABET LETTERS
I designed my logo for Upper Playground the week after I started on my own as a freelancer. Upper Playground then was not only my artist name, but also my ‘company’name. Later on I decided to make my own alfabet letters. That turned out to be a bit more work than I thought. I had to figure out what the underlining rules were, and started to couple them. I now use them a lot. Takes a lot of time to write a normal sentence, but hey, who cares. Great fun.
MY STENCIL ART AND COLLAGE ART ON CANVAS
I experiment a lot with the combination of text and images and with bits and pieces from magazines, paint left-overs, pieces I find on the street (like a dented BMW emblem that is now an earring), combined with acrylpaint, spraypaint, posca marker, glitter powder and glue, you name it. I never know where I will end up. A wonderful proces.
MY ACRYLIC PORTRAITS AND DISTORTED FACES ON CANVAS
I’m painting quite a lot of portraits now-a-days. I start out with a rough sketch on the canvas using wasco pencil and then put layer over layer of acryl paint on top of each-other, sometimes using a paintknive. Until it is … finished, which it never really is.
I also call them My Distorted Faces. They are a bit crazy sometimes. Still evolving 🙂
MY BIGFOOT PAINTINGS
I love my Bigfoot paintings. In the beginning they were a combination of scraps of magazines, acrylpaint and Posca marker. A bit Poparty. The Bigfoot now reappears in all kinds of paintings. The themes of my blue Big Foot paintings are duality, enlightenment, freedom and equality.
DUALITY
Duality is a theme that keeps on reappearing in my paintings. Two (or more) faces in the same body, male/female, female/male, male/male, female/female.
ABSTRACTS AND ABSTRACT GRAFFS
Last year I started experimenting with abstracts on bigger canvasses (100 cm and bigger) with spraypaint, acrylpaint, posca markers, wasco. Wonderful way to experiment with paint-knives, dripping tools, different use of my brushes and all sorts of paint. Influenced by spraypainters, graffity artists and by artists like Rothko, Antoni Tapies, Günter Uecker and Pierre Soulages.
PETITS LITTLE MONSTRES
My Petits Little Monstres, yes ok, everyone does them, but I love them just the same. I use acrylpaint, spraypaint, poscamarker and wasco.
To be totally clear, they are not really monsters who try to scare us, but it is actually the other way around: they are little birds scared shitless by something (by us?).
MY PIECES – MY UNSHACKLE BRACELETS AND NECKLACES
I started creating bracelets and necklaces when I lost the shackle of one of my so called ‘freedom’ bracelets of the Dutch brand Pig & Hen. Very sad moment. Because I love them a lot (I have three). For me they represent freedom so that’s why I call them my unshackle bracelets. So I looked in my toolbox and sewing box for something that I could use as a ‘fixture’. I got a bit carried away and before I knew it I had created three bracelets myself, using rope, buttons and different kinds of fixtures and buckles. Loved making them and loved how they looked. Kind of cool!
So that’s how my bracelet-making-spree, and then my necklaces, started. I went on to visit all kinds of bead-shops (they’re crazy!) and button-shops in Amsterdam and visit second hand markets. Did you know that in bead-shops it is normal that you note down all the beads and their prices that you put in your little basket? Well, I didn’t. Of course I had a very full little basket, so I had to go back and look up all the prices and count the beads. But well…
MY LYRICS
You don’t talk about poems and lyrics.
UPPER PLAYGROUND JUST UP AND LEFT!
In 2023 I made a big jump. I decided leave by beloved Amsterdam for the East of Holland. I now live in a small farmhouse in the middle of the forests and the meadows. Best decision ever. Freedom! Beauty! Wonderful people! Heaven!
When I’m not working on my own piece of land, or on a bio-dynamic farm close by, I’m walking in the forests, or cycling to discover the nearby villages and towns, and I of course I paint, spray paint, up-cycle pieces and am discovering more every day. I have my studio at home.
CONTACT ME
If you are interested in my art, would like to work together and/or get in touch, email me at upperplayground@upperplayground.nl
UPPER PLAYGROUND
Artist, painter, spraypainter & designer – click on button below for more info.
MY POSTS
- Exhibition of my paintings and UP-cycled jewellery & bags from 1st until 24 of February 2024 in Deventer
Very happy to present my paintings, collage-art and my UP-cycle pieces: pre-used chains, bracelets, bags and belts, to give them a new life. From the first of February until the 24th of February I will have an exhibition at Galerie DNA in Het Bergkwartier of Deventer. Saturday the 10th I will have a meet & greet with drinks from … - MY SPRAYPAINTINGS
MY WORK AS A SPRAYPAINTER I love streetart, stencil-art, tags and graffiti art. I myself started out using spraypaint on paper and canvas, still being a bit shy for trying it out in the streets. I used to visit an amazing spraypaint shop in Amsterdam, Henxs, just to look at their amazing collection of spraypaint cans and posca markers, … - Stop being afraid
Stop being afraid… … to do the things you love!! - ‘Thinking about you’
Drawings, spraypaintings and paintings of my new design ‘Thinking about you’ – spraypaint, acrylpaint, Posca marker, charcoal, wasco stick. Based on a pencil drawing from 2008 of Tilda Swinton. - Le Penseur
I started experimenting with this design in January 2021. First in pencil and Posca marker. Now often mixing Posca with acrylpaint, spraypaint and wasco sticks. - New Catawiki auction of two of my Andy Warhol paintings
Coming week two of my Andy Warhol paintings are on auction on Catawiki! It’s SPACING OUT WITH WARHOL #7 and #8. The Popart-Auction will end Saturday Night the 2nd of January! See link here. ? And click here for more Andy Warhol paintings, spraypaintings and stencil-paintings. - Catawiki auction of two of my Andy Warhol paintings
This week two of my Andy Warhol paintings are on auction on Catawiki! It’s WARHOL IN DEEP and STENCILED WARHOLE. The Popart Auction will end Thursday Night the 10th of December! See link here. ? And click here for more Andy Warhol paintings, spraypaintings and stencil-paintings.