From 2004 until the end of 2005 I had been working on a series of tree-paintings. In this series I was mainly developing my painting technique, and further investigating the expression possibilities of paint strokes. Despite the fact that this also meant exploring the 'communication'-possibilities of paint strokes, the actual subject matter of the work was entirely to be found in the painting process. I was working solitary in a remote studio and hardly interacted with the developments in contemporary art. The series followed a strict scheme, always one tree in the center of the painting. Monastic work. No wonder that after a year of working like that the urge emerged to drastically change course.

Actually the strict monastic work was bothering me less than the fact that the work didn't relate much with my involvements and the world around me. And I not only desired to make work that could be part of the developments in contemporary art, I even wanted to make work that could relate to the world outside the domain of Art. No more art pour l'art. My previous series went back to a 20th century way of working, but now I sort of said goodbye to Modernism.

[ One could file my new work under 'Post Modernism', as long as this term is not used for a movement that just mixes 'Neo'-styles. ]

To be able to make my work communicate better, I first needed to find a painting style closer to me than that of the former series. When I was thirteen years old, I wanted to become a comic strip artist. And there has always been a hint of a cartoon style of painting in my work. For my new paintings I wanted to go back more evidently to how I saw my future when I was a young teenager. In that future Arjan Brentjes would now be a famous cartoon artist drawing albums full of captivating adventures.

It wasn't an enormous step to start using the influence of comic strips in my work. In painting I have always searched for new ways to communicate in a language of images, especially with painted and drawn lines. In comics, besides the lines that are used to depict something, there are lines that give the viewer extra information about the depicted object. For example lines that indicate speed or anxiety. I try to find new ways to impose meanings or affects to painted lines. In a way this could still be considered Modernist research. But besides that I also want the painting to comment on the subjects that are depicted on it. And in the choice of subjects there also is an apparent influence of comic book stories. Especially the ones wherein the world seamed to consist entirely of areas where one encounters thrilling adventures, no matter how deplorable the regional situation. Watching news programs on television I can think 'What a terrible misery' and at the same time 'That's a far out chopper!' And watching such an image longer the second thought becomes dominating. This doesn't interest me for its moral aspect, but I do contemplate on how this functions.

The work is not political. My paintings aren't about choosing sides in international conflicts. I will only choose sides for a thirteen year old boy that wants to be a comic strip artist, for whom there is a clear line between good and evil and for whom the unknown is one big adventure.