Johan Krijgsman

I paint places where I would want to be. In my landscapes I find something that easily gets lost in everyday life: quiet, space, and stillness. My work isn't really about a specific place, but about the feeling a landscape can evoke.

These are rarely spectacular locations or well-known sights. It's the simple places that draw me in: a sandy path, a quiet street, a park, a river, a beach. Places where you can just look around without anything needing to happen. Sometimes a figure appears in that landscape — never as the main subject, but as someone who, like the viewer, has paused for a moment in that space.

This preference didn't come out of nowhere. As a boy I often cycled alone through the wide-open polders of Zeeland. The space, the quiet, and the feeling of being completely on your own for a while have stayed with me ever since. That feeling is what I try to find again, and pass on, in my paintings.

While painting, I leave out details that don't contribute to the atmosphere of a place. Through light, color, and form, I try to capture how a landscape feels. Not because the place itself is remarkable, but because I hope the viewer recognizes something in it: a moment of stillness, a memory, or perhaps a longing for a place where you feel at home.

I developed this way of looking step by step. I live in Leiden and work in oil paint, acrylic, soft pastel, and sometimes gouache. I built my practice through lessons with, among others, Ian Roberts, Samuel Earp, and Malcolm Dewey, supplemented by courses and workshops at Ars Aemulae, the Van Gogh Museum, and with James Kroner (plein air). Where possible, I paint on location outdoors, in and around Leiden or elsewhere in the Netherlands.

Note: a selection of my paintings is available for purchase through the Exto online shop. The checkout page is currently provided in Dutch. For questions about a painting, international shipping or payment, please feel free to contact me directly.