De meeste van deze werken doorliepen een werkproces van meer dan een jaar. De verplichte isolatie tijdens de corona-periode zorgde voor een intense concentratie en werklust. Er is geen vast thema in deze reeks. De inspiratie kwam uit diverse hoeken.

In the 1990s I laid out a large garden in Wilsele, which I used as a topic for an extensive series of pastels taking on an - for once - uncomplicated impressionist approach.

In 1991 and '93 I partook as a draftsman in the archaeological excavation campaigns of Prof. Waalkens in Sagalassos, Turkey. This blunt confrontation with the ancient past left a lasting mark on the design and themes of my oeuvre. On the spot I made a series of pastel paintings and drawings, which I later incorporated into etchings.

Travel impressions, inspired by a trekking through the Anapurna mountains.

Representations of sites made for various clients - among others and especially the KULeuven

In 1874, on the occasion of an exhibition by his friend Victor Hartmann, Modest Mussorgsky wrote a splendid work for piano: ‘Pictures at an exhibition'. Commissioned by the then Radio 3 (now Klara) and Canon, Cultural Cell of the Department of Education of the Ministry of the Flemish Community, I was listening to this music when came the inspiration for sixteen charcoal drawings, which in turn formed the starting point for a composition by Martin Valcke for four-handed piano and percussion (also commissioned by the radio).

A project realized in collaboration with Johan van Cauwenberghe.  A never ending dialogue went on while sharing and developing Image and text.  In 1632, Rembrandt was commissioned by the Amsterdam Surgeons' Guild to depict an anatomy lesson by the famous medical prelector Doctor Nicolaas Tulp. It turned out to be one of the most outstanding works of his early period. Setting out from this famous painting, we endeavoured to exemplify the impossibility of grasping reality without destroying it.

This cycle is inspired by Olivier Messiaen’s eponymous musical piece. I became acquainted with this music while Roel Dieltiens and I were working together. He was studying the cello part of the Quattuor. The source of Messiaen's music is to be found in a fragment of the Apocalypse mentioning an Angel, standing with one foot in the sea and one foot on land. This impressive image guided me as did the timbres and musical structures and particularly the emotions that this piece of music arouses.

‘In Illo Tempore?’ is not a story, neither is it a realistic representation. The visual elements, which can be both figurative and abstract, are brought together in a context that can be seen as a force field or as a puzzle rather than as a representation of a concrete space or of a story. The silver thread is the ascending and descending of an image within the image, from print to print, so that an idea of time and a kind of contrapuntal structure arises, in which various references and symbols are interwoven.