Herman Stel is an autodidact about his painting. My work consists of figurative art. As a child I drew a lot in all kinds of forms. Animal figures but also graphic forms inspired me in particular. Contrasts in forms and use of color and also the drawing of faces fascinated me back then. After the millennium change I started drawing and painting again. First I added animal figures to the series with faces later on. Inspired by the desire to do something with emotions, people and faces, I have combined this style with the colorful style I already painted. The portraits are characterized by a colorite of bright and intense colors where I keep looking for the emotion and a special attitude in combination with the light. I am the happiest of a portrait that gives a different picture during the day.
I plan the composition and the core colors, but let me inspire myself during painting by a non-fixed color palette, which is intuitive and connects with the emotion that I try to put into the image. People and intuition play an important role in my life and are an important motive in my work. Life itself inspires me. We are jigsaw pieces of many emotions between joy and sorrow that I try to capture in color and form into a portrait. I find a part of myself in every work. Portraits attract the attention of people and always deliver nice conversations and reactions. I feel that a painting has succeeded when people are "caught" by the combination of the emotion and the intense color palette so that a painting is much more than just a picture on the wall.
Participating in art markets and fairs is a conscious choice because the interaction with the audience and the other participants gives me a lot of inspiration. It is very nice and inspiring to participate in exhibitions together with my daughter and stand together in an art market. This father / daughter combination often produces nice reactions. I sometimes paint a lot and regularly in periods and sometimes it stops again. It's great fun to be busy, sometimes I'm in a flow that I can not stop before I'm done. In my portraits I use a technique where I use only pallet blades for the greater part of the painting. The different colors are set up layer by layer, sometimes run into each other and eventually form one whole.