Exhibition Xavier Swolfs: Watercolours
The watercolours of Xavier Swolfs
In his uniquely own way Swolfs is able to revive landscapes in his watercolours. One is able to recognize the beauty of West-Flemish nature, the Belgian and Dutch shores, Venice, Tuscany… With paper or canvas, watercolour and water, Xavier recreate the incredible magnitude of these landscapes. One almost ‘hears’ the trees rustle, the squelching of the water, one ‘feels’ the mist hanging low and the beams of sunlight shimmer. Xavier’s work is often recognized, besides its watercolour technique, for its color palette with lots of green, gray and blue. It’s his signature.
Playful watercolour technique
Bringing to life is what the light, playful technique of watercolour lends itself to best. It’s a game between colours (the watercolour), the water and time. The water and the paint flow, bleed into each other and are brought to life. Xavier says: “It’s thrilling, the artful play one learns, one is able to manipulate. And yet this technique is often full of surprises. It never fails to excite. The ways of expressing with watercolour are endless. As an artist I am able to fully lay myself bear. The developing of my watercolour technique has been my personal life’s journey, one is not able to learn this in academies.
Xavier creates his work in phases. He selects his subjects by spending a lot of time outdoors, by walking, by photographing. He allows the impressions to come to him, this can be a complete landscape, but also part of an image. Afterwards he starts sketching and puts together a composition, drawing from the archive of inspiration in his mind. His work is never finished, never perfect, he says. Yet, at a given moment, he is able to put down the brush and put away the painting.
After letting the painting ‘rest’ for a couple of months, he revisits the piece with a fresh look. That’s when he decides whether or not the piece is good enough to complete. Finishing touches are applied, details are finetuned. A glass plate is put in front (if the watercolour was painted on paper) and it is framed. There are also a lot of watercolours that do not survive the artist’s critical second look, these are trashed. Xavier makes about ten painting a year.
Advertising agency as the best school
Xavier Swolfs (°1942) studied naval sciences, worked at a photo engraving business and later founded an advertising agency, for which he often provided illustrations in watercolour. “The best school”, Xavier calls it. When the free painting started taking up more and more of his free time and his works started to sell – also internationally (the advent of the internet provided an extra boost) – Xavier truly became an artist. ‘My personal heroes, such as the British godfather of the watercolor technique William Turner, the Austrian Gottfried Salzman and the American Andrew Wyeth are still a source of admiration and inspiration”, he adds. Xavier also wishes to leave us with some advice: ‘A passion starts in an unguarded moment of life. One needs to roll into it.”
The opening of watercolours on May 14th
Water is an often returning motive in Xavier’s work. Water is also one of the sources of his watercolor technique. It seems only right that his new exposition at Early Birds Art Gallery is called ‘Watercolours’.
‘When visitors in the gallery are really looking at my work, when they are drawn in deeper and start asking questions, that’s when my exposition will be a success. Showing real interest is much more than liking something on social media, or simply saying it’s pretty.’
Dying to ask Xavier questions about his watercolour technique? You’re in luck, he will be at the opening of his exposition on Saturday May 14th in Knokke.