Ewoud de Groot | Biography

" To me, as an artist, producing a good painting is about exploring all the different facets of composition, colour and technique and not just reproducing an image in a photorealistic way. Although I consider myself a figurative painter, I always try to find that essential balance and tension between the more abstract background and the realism of the subject(s). In a way you could say that I am on the frontier between figurative and non-figurative, or the traditional and the modern. "


My technique is based on the principle of painting in layers, using cold blueish-grays and warm brownish-grays. This delicate balance ensures that they compliment and enhance each other. I start a painting by sketching with big brushstrokes and using the palette knife to look for the right composition, not allowing myself to be distracted by specifics. Once the form of the painting has been established then I begin to work on the birds or a particular detail of the bird(s) themselves.


My familiarity with wildlife has ensured that they have become my primary artistic focus. Their shape and colour and the balance of negative space around and between individuals. These are the main ingredients, also pattern, rhythm, depth and structure, all of which are vital in order to paint a good painting.


My subjects are mostly birds of the northern hemisphere, from Europe, Siberia and then into North America. I have encountered these species on many occasions on my trips throughout Europe, Poland Scandinavia, Russia, Canada, Wyoming and Alaska, where I used to work as a fishing guide a couple of summers.

In 2009 the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum purchased my entry for Birds in Art 2009 ; 'Phalarope's' this painting was inspired by the phalarope's I saw foraging on lake Hood, Anchorage Alaska."