The new school year 2024 - 2025 at my local academy in ‘Sint-Niklaas’ has started again.

This is already my 11th year. I am starting a 2 year course ‘2D Model Specialization’, the continuation of my previous course.

I am going to focus again on expanding my ‘March 2 Infinity’ and related universe(s).
There will also be some new and exciting developments taking place, which unfortunately I cannot release any information about at this time, but keep an eye on my site for future news.

Looking forward to yet another creative year.

Steven

I am happy to announce that I graduated this year from the 4 year course ‘Living Model’ at the D’Academie Beeld van Sint-Niklaas under the speciliast care of our teacher Benny Luyckx.

I have decided to continue this journey and start the 2 year follow up specialization course. So looking forward for some more creative endeavours and continuation of the artistic path.

But first a well deserved 2 months summer holiday period.

Steven

I will graduate this year from the D’Academie Beeld van Sint-Niklaas. And that includes an exhibition where you can admire the students’ works.

I am showing a selection of my works from the art series ‘March 2 Infinity’.

You can find more information regarding the exposition on the academy site (NL).

My works will be shown at the ‘Collegekerk’.

Looking forward to see you there,

Steven

I am pleased to announce the birth of a new art series.

“Flowerheads” is the next chapter within the ‘March 2 Infinity’ universum.

Flowerheads

A movement within the transhumanists, grown from a desire to return to the roots of the symbiosis between humans and nature, a symbiosis that was once self-evident on the home planet.

An idea born as a reaction against the relentless quest of their fellow transhumanists to become gods by embracing machines and technological advancement.

Using the same advanced technology, seeds are implanted into the head and body and nourished until they grow into full-fledged plants and live in symbiosis with the human form, creating the next counter-revolution in the evolution of transhumanism.

Rumor has it that some of them still live on Earth in floating cities, high in the sky above the polluted planet, where they use the warm, embracing light of the sun for their continued symbiotic, organic evolution.

The new art series will depict portraits of transhumanists using oils & charcoal as the main drawing mediums.

I am looking forward to further develop this new art series and discover how it evolves and interacts with the other series.

You can find the new art series here.

Kind Regards,

Steven

My local academy Sint-Niklaas (Belgium) is having its ‘open doors day’ this weekend. People can freely visit all the class rooms and get to know the various disciplines and look at the created art by the students.

A selection of my ‘Mars 2 Infinity’ art works are on display as well. You can find them in the class room and in the hallway.

Feel free to drop by and explore the academy.

More info at the academy website (dutch).

The academy group exposition ‘Model X’ came to an end last sunday. It was a great success with over 1000 visitors during these 3 weeks and an overall very positive reaction.

Over 30 students of the ateliers ‘Living Model 2D & 3D’ exhibited together a great variety of their works. The response of the visitors was very positive and praised the variety and quality of the showed works.

I showed recent artworks from my art series ‘M2I Traditional’ and ‘M2I Transhumanism’.

Thank you to everyone who came along. Your visit & positive reactions are very encouraging to continue our artistic journey.

And also thanks to the academy, my fellow students and especially to our art teacher Benny Luyckx, who made this all possible.

It was a great experience and we learned alot. Looking forward to a next one.

You can find more info about my participating artworks on the dedicated exposition page.

Kind Regards,

Steven

I am excited to announce I will participate in a new academy group exposition ‘Model X’.

The students of the ateliers ‘Living Model 2D & 3D’ will exhibit together a selection of their works.

I will be showing recent artworks from my art series ‘M2I Traditional’ and ‘M2I Transhumanism’.

The exposition will take place on location in the heart of Sint-Niklaas, Stationsstraat 43, in an empty building that is being taken decorated by the students and teachers.

vernissage on Friday 21 April at 7 pm.

from Saturday April 22 to Sunday May 7

Saturday, Sunday from 11am-5pm

More info at the academy page (nl).

Everyone welcome !

Kind Regards,

Steven

The year at the academy is progressing and the collection of new ‘March 2 Infinity’ art is taking shape.

The ‘March 2 Infinity’ art series depicts our world in a future far away. Those who could afford it, enhanced their bodies & minds and fled to the stars eons ago. The offspring of the poor souls left behind are since then scavenging the desolated earth in search of long forgotten technology in an attempt to become gods themselves and join their destiny between the stars.

The old prophecies talk about huge black stones within the landscape that should contain the secrets for a life in the clouds and beyond. Holy stories told for centuries already by the spirits healers & priests of these new religions.

Groups of damaged and broken bodies are since then forever scavenging the lands, in search of hope, between the desolated and ruined remains of what was once human society.

The ‘story’ is still being developed and I am seeing much potential for further story telling.

From a materials point of view I am trying to use a mixture of charcoal drawings and often thin downed oil painting on gessoed board & thick paper. Technique wise I am searching for an expressive tone while still maintaining readability. I experiment on smaller boards but also bigger sized canvas.

I am looking forward to further investigate this artistic path.

Kind Regards,

Steven

The new school year 2022 - 2023 at my local academy in ‘Sint-Niklaas’ has started again.

This will be my 9th year already. Time sure does fly.

I am going to focus again on expanding my ‘March 2 Infinity’ art series and universe.
Including new landscapes of our desolate world, torned away figures in search of their hope in the skies and beyond and portraits of transhumanists in search of the eternal life.

The first weeks brought already inspiration, various sketches and some new works …

Looking forward to yet another creative year.

Steven

1st of september … Back to school !

The new school year 2022 - 2023 at my local academy in ‘Sint-Niklaas’ has started again.

This will be my 9th year (model) drawing already. Time sure does fly.

As always it is a pleasure to see back the teacher, models and fellow students. After 2 months of ‘holidays’ it always feels a bit like ‘home coming’ when we enter the class room again.

The first lessons I typically practise model sketching to get myself back into the habbit of drawing. In the meanwhile I am slowly preparing and thinking about the directions I want to take with my running art series ‘Digital Waves’, ‘Desperate Poses’ and ‘March 2 Infinity’.

Looking forward to yet another creative year.

Steven

Yet another school year has passed at my local art academy in Sint-Niklaas (Belgium).

This year I have been focusing mostly on working on my ‘March 2 Infinities - Landscapes’ art series and I began to explore the new ‘Transhumanists’ art series.

Art is created using either traditional media like charcoal / oil paintings or using purely digital means. Combinations of both occur as well. Computer AI is used sometimes to generate new reference materials based upon existing own works.

It are definitely exciting times as an artist to explore and find new creative paths.

March 2 Infinity - Landscapes

“The March to Infinity had departed. Will Humanity make the right choices?”

Story

Within this art series I explore the impact of technology on the future of mankind - which has made itself nearly gods by applying extensions onto their own bodies & souls.

Earth however is rampaged by centuries of exploitation and technology misusages. The lucky (wealthy) ones fled to the stars and left this barren world ages ago. The unfortunates, who were left behind, are roaming the lands in search of huge black stones which should contain the information to reach the skies and the technologies to upgrade their wrecked bodies. Or at least that’s what the prophecies claim.

Eons have since then passed …

Wrecked bodies scavenging the lands in search for that forgotten knowledge. Hopeful they are longing for the eternal life among their brothers & sisters at the stars.

Art Techniques

Barren landscapes are depicted using traditional oil painting inter mangled with AI driven reference generation based upon my own (traditional) works.

A new traditional work is created upon an AI generated reference on heavy gessoed paper or canvas using oil paints. The new work can then be served again to the AI for a new reference generation. And thus an unendless feedback loop is created and continued …

I created the term (abbreviation) ‘TRADQAN’ to indicate this kind of work progress.

Future

I created several new works within this series and I am planning to continue to explore even more.

You can discover the art series at my Contemporary website. Various works are already available as NFT on OBJKT marketplace which runs on the CleanNFT blockchain Tezos .

March 2 Infinity - Transhumanists

Story

’Transhumanism’ is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. (WIKI)

Technology (mis)used to modify one owns human body to reach the status of gods.

But does unchecked, wild & dangerous changes to one self modifies ones soul as well?
Nobody knows.

Results often madly gone wrong. Only a happy few that reach the goal of eternity.

Art Techniques

This new art series depicts portraits of modified humans using a raw painting technique of oils mixed with charcoal on heavy gessoed paper.

Future

I am planning on creating an extensive range of portraits. I might consider launching these series as a new NFT collection.

Retrospect

I am quite happy with my progress and new creative paths. I am definitely looking forward to a new year to continue exploring these art series.

Steven

My local academy Sint-Niklaas (Belgium) is having its ‘open doors day’ this weekend. People can freely visit all the class rooms and get to know the various disciplines and look at the created art by the students.

My traditional AI based art works are on display as well. You can find them in the class room and in the hallway.

Feel free to drop by and explore the academy.

More info at the academy website (dutch).