Rob Schrama paints.

Rob Schrama makes paintings, for more than 30 years now. Besides his work as an art-teacher and organizer of ‘action-art’, he rarely has the opportunity to hold his paintbrush. Rob Schrama spends most of his time thinking about concepts and realizing them, the requesting of funds and the coaching of the participants. There usually is not enough time to work on his own art, withdrawn in his own studio. He regularry participates in groupexhibitions, exhibitions in the cities where he is staying at that time or in galleries at his home in the Nieuwmarktbuurt in Amsterdam.

At the moment Rob Schrama has an enormous working space at this disposition in an old paint factory, where he can work without being interfered on a new series of huges works of art, called Minerality. For this he lets himself be inspired by the beautiful colours of minerals and uses many gold-coloured paints. Rob Schrama’s pieces of art are liberated from the canvas and seem to hover along the wall.

                                                                     Minerality 2 and Minerality 3

                                       Minerality 3    160x145x20 cm oilpaint on polyester

      

                Minerality 2   250x230x20 cm oilpaint on polyester

                                           Minerality 4    145x145x15 cm oilpaint on polyester

                       

               Minerality 5   100x 185x15cm oilpaint on polyester

Minerality 5 and Minerality 4

                                           Minerality 1   230x270x20 cm oilpaint on polyester

The process of making “Minerality” takes a long time; usually more than two months for every piece of art. Rob Schrama starts with making a clay mallet. With his fingertips he makes a clay landscape, with mountains and valleys, holes and dangerous places. For the larger artworks a few hundred kilos are needed and the artist also uses different tools, like gauze and sticks, to fold the clay and keep it in its shape.

               

Around the mallet linen and ‘jute’ is draped. With the help of glass fiber a layer of polyester is applied on the clay mallet. Even after numerous layers this layer will remain soft and brittle. Because of this the backside also has to be strengthened with polyester, and also with a cast-iron skeleton for extra support. Before the back side can be worked on, the clay mallet is first chopped away, leaving a very thin layer of polyester.

                

When the thus formed ‘canvasses’ are firm enough, a layer of paint is applied, with sand and iron shavings to get extra relief. Then the colors are added. Rob Schrama uses oil paint for this, which is applied both with a paintbrush as with brushes on the canvas. The richness of colour in the world of minerals is his inspiration.

             

 

                     

                           Minerality 1   230x270x20 cm oilpaint on polyester