“I don't use any camera, photographic material or scanned images. Every image is made out of digital scratch by hand and started with nothing, as an empty canvas for a painter (Eelco Brand)”.

Nowadays the computer plays an important role for creating probably everything. Within photography, Photoshop and the computer are already important tools for a photographer. With the development of high-technology the working process of artists towards their art works have changed. They combine and utilize a range of materials and experiment with new approaches in order to pursue the best method of representing the imagination in their minds. This is an approach by today’s artists which finds an important position in the art world today.

What you see in the recent trends of the art market today is the diffusion of different techniques. There are photographers who work with photographs that look like paintings and there are painters who use photographs for their paintings. Also, there are sculptors who work with video art and there are video artists who work with installations.

Eelco Brand was born in 1969 in the Netherlands. In 1993 he exhibited various painting and computer animation works around Europe. His works deals with the subject of nature and the beauty of the natural world created through media. His intended process in creating his art work is all about what we observe in this world, hence what we see and what we do not see.

In the early 1990s, he abandons the medium of painting, which he had dedicated himself to, and makes use of innovative new media - scanned photographs and computer animated work. Eelco Brand’s intention was to abandon himself from the purely brushwork technique of painting and make a start in works using 3D software. His interest lies in the endless and varied nature and his animation works focus on continuity and progression. Eelco Brand’s work can be called to be “more of a framed painting than film production.”

Eelco Brand uses digital technology and creates man-made nature. He deals with the idea that ‘imitation is ingrained in humankind’.

People imitate people in everything. Human culture is one of duplication, repetition and adaptation; however, people also live in a mimetic relationship with nature. We look at nature; we study it, follow it and improve it in our own way (critique by H. van Boxtel). In this way Eelco Brand creates his world of nature with digital imaging and 3D animation techniques, and introduces us to the beauty of nature.

Endless repetitions of a Moving Painting

Eelco Brand’s 3D animations are works where a few seconds of his created world is shown in an endless loop. His works have no designated time span and does not have a specific story but they are works which are visually captivating. Many critics have claimed that Eelco Brand’s animation works are “paintings in movement.”

Please make sure that all images indicate copyright.
The proper form would be ⓒ Eelco Brand

ⓒ Eelco Brand - Rook 2006, C-print, 100x100cm

ⓒ Eelco Brand - Wolken 2007, C-print, 100x100cm

ⓒ Eelco Brand - Sparheuvel 2006, C-print, 85x160cm