Fred Breebaart (XX) - Arkje

Fred Breebaart (1945–2015) was a Dutch painter with a highly recognizable, distinctive style.
He spent a part of his youth in Curaçao, which later became an important source of inspiration.
As a talented student, he even studied under Karel Appel, but initially did not choose art.
He began a career in the insurance industry, while painting remained in the background.
After a burnout in 1972, he decided to devote himself to art full-time.
In southern Spain he developed his professional artistry.
Inspired by naive art, he deliberately chose small formats of about 20 x 25 cm.
This measure became his standard and for years determined his way of working.
His style is characterized by busy, colorful compositions in a naïve painting style.
From a distance, his works look cheerful and lively.
Up close, they reveal countless details, jokes, and narrative elements.
His paintings often contain more figures than what seems logical, which reinforces the playful character.
He worked with marten-hair watercolor brushes and mainly Liquitex acrylic paint.
The substrate consisted of carefully prepared masonite with several layers of gesso.
He painted his naive works while sitting, with them laid flat on a desk, extremely detailed.
In addition to his freelance work, he completed many commissions, such as family portraits and paintings depicting the arc of a person's life.
In this, he integrated his personal memories and the major moments of his life.
His work found international appeal through galleries in Europe, America and Curaçao.
Yet he remained primarily driven by the joy and the smile of the audience.
His goal was to create a painting that looks cheerful and reveals new details every time you look at it.