From Magazin Art (Winter 2008/2009) courtesy of the publisher. By Ingrid C. King

Michael den Hertog:
A Study in Transition


"I enjoy the freedom of pursuing different avenues," says Michael den Hertog, a contemporary abstract painter whose style is an evolving process driven by his innate need to experiment and challenge himself. "How I paint depends on what inspires me."

Not long ago, den Hertog was an award-winning painter of photorealism portraiture and before that, Dutch landscapes. Both styles are a far cry from today's multi-textured, emotive abstractions. That is precisely what appeals to den Hertog, who finds bliss in discovering new depths to his work.

Today, den Hertog's work remains a constantly shifting and evolving process, where one painting may have several previous adaptations layered beneath it. Before he picked up a brush and palette knife, den Hertog lived a completely different life as a successful businessman.

"Twelve years ago, I left a perfectly good job for the joy of pursuing art. I wasn't dissatisfied with my work, but found that I spent all my free time painting," says den Hertog. Like many artists, a love for painting had originated in early childhood.

Born in Montreal to Dutch parents, Micheal den Hertog grew up in Vancouver in a home filled with prints of European masterpieces. "When I was young, I loved to draw and doodle," he says. While his parents encouraged his artistic side, den Hertog followed his practical side through high school and university and into a career in business. Paintings became a hobby until one day, he could deny it no longer. It was something that always gnawed at him just below the surface.

"Approaching mid-life, I quite literally gave up everything and began again," says den Hertog. "For too long, I had avoided my true calling. Once I surrendered to painting, it very quickly began to reshape me. Fear turned to excitement, and faith in my creative process began to grow."

Although Michael is largely self-taught, he has studied painting and art history at the University of British Columbia, the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design in Vancouver, and the Instituto Allende in San Miguel D'Allende, Mexico. His paintings have received numerous awards in Canadian juried exhibitions. His own self-portrait is a stunning example of photo-realism portraiture: a talent that den Hertog soon became widely recognized for.

As a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, den Hertog has taught classes in Vancouver. Like his art, his format wasn't highly structured, rather an open session concept that encouraged freedom of expression from his students. This experience prepared him for a very public experience as an emerging artist.

For the last seven years, den Hertog painted out of an open studio on Vancouver's Granville Island, a home to performing arts, the Emily Carr Institute, restaurants, artists' studios and workshops, art galleries and a popular public market.

"The criteria were to work with the doors open so that people could watch," den Hertog explains. "It was a fantastic studio with 28 feet ceilings." Largely due to his teaching experience and outgoing nature, den Hertog was comfortable with his daily audience and answered their questions while he worked.

Last year, it was time for the studio's lease to be renewed. True to his pioneering spirit, den Hertog and his wife, Gillian Lindsay, instead decided to move from their downtown condo and start a new chapter in their lives. They bought a home in Steveston Village, an historic fishing village in Richmond where they set up individual studio spaces. While Gillian Lindsay, a fine arts and abstract photographer, began working from a room in the house, den Hertog is still adjusting to working in a private studio - his high-ceilinged, heated garage.

Den Hertog's evolving process is driven by inspiration that sometimes appears close to home. "Six years ago, I remarried and my artistic style now cross-pollinates with my wife's. I get ideas from her work and vice versa." Lindsay's abstract photographs capture real images that explore texture, colour and composition, while den Hertog creates texture, colour and composition from a creative centre. Their portfolios compliment each others' work.

"With photo-realism, I felt like I was becoming a slave to the image. That's what I found so attractive about working in abstracts," says den Hertog. "When I started painting abstracts I had to unlearn the rigid left brain process inherent to photorealism portraiture. I now work in a predominantly experimental manner that allows each painting to be a new adventure."

Den Hertog follows an organic process with each canvas, from his tools to the final image on the canvas. Sometimes he uses just a palette knife while others are only created using a brush and others are collages.

"If I try to design it from the beginning, I find that it becomes too tight and contrived. I usually begin by doodling on the canvas, sometimes with my eyes closed. I look for 'happy accidents'. I'm at my best when I work from unforeseen elements, like scribbles or wisps of paint that spatter. Those scribbles and splats give me something to edit. It becomes an aesthetic exercise rather than an intellectual exercise."

Put simply, den Hertog either likes what he sees or he doesn't. And if he doesn't he'll just paint over it or push and pull at the paint. He admits that he enjoys the editing process the most and that his paintings are quite heavy because of all the previous incarnations below the surface. "I'll create 80-90 paintings a year, but only 30-40 canvases will come out of my studio. Basically each painting is a lesson in evolution, a creation layered on happy accidents and many editing sessions."

Besides the joy den Hertog feels from painting is the joy of learning what people think of his work. "It's terrific to see what different people see and what emotions they feel. People tell me they can recognize my style but I think they're just being kind. If you stood my paintings side by side, it would be hard to tell they all came from the same artist," he says.

Over the past decade, Michael's work has been exhibited through a number of galleries in Western Canada, and his paintings are widely represented in private and corporate collections in Canada, the U.S.A., Europe, and Mexico.

From his new home and studio in Steveston, den Hertog is relishing in the oasis of texture and calm the heritage community has to offer. "It's a little island in the middle of a metropolitan area with marshes and dykes. As an artist, there are many interesting surfaces to explore and I enjoy the sense of community here."

"In a lifetime of searching, making art continues to be the path on which I experience most fully the immeasurable grace of being," says den Hertog. Who knows where his experimental nature will lead him tomorrow. Whatever avenues den Hertog explores next, his artistic path is sure to be filled with the joy of a life fully explored.