A Contemporary Approach to Floral Still Lifes

Spring in the Wintertime

A Series of Photographs by Bas Meeuws

Tanishka D’Lyma

In seeking inspiration, or not, an encounter with nature brightens the senses stimulatingan overcoming urge to come up to scale with its beauty and respond to the awe it left us in,that is if one isn’t afraid of falling short in her or his endeavors. As mediums evolve with the turn that art is always taking, we never come closer to but always move along the line, once removed from the bed of truth, of nature’s beauty. We can go no further than representing. But even that has its own wonder that while our subject is a representation, the medium is purely ours, purely human yet transcending the boundaries of it making our minds and bodies a thing of marvel and admiration.

That is what you will come to understand as you take in the photographs of Dutch artist Bas Meeuws. After the initial evoking of joy and bliss at the beauty of the work before you, which is what Meeuws aims to kindle with his photographs

Beginning with an empty vase is how the process is laid for development. Meeuws says that each step paves the way for the next; it’s a layering of different images of flowers along with an aim for charm and a source of inspiration that qualifies the artistic process. What is the inspiration though? Meeuws dives deep into the emerging history photography with ‘Spring in the Wintertime’. Informed by the 17th century Dutch Golden Age of flower paintings, Meeuws work recalls a similar texture and mood, achieved, unimaginably it would seem by those artists, digitally. ‘Spring in the Wintertime’ is far from a mere recreation of past work. It is a celebration of it in a way that is unique to this artist. Meeuws’ sensibility imbues his visual vocabulary with an understanding of his subject