Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - A Piece Left Standing
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Tijs Dragtsma (born 1992) presents A Piece Left Standing, an original 51 × 51 cm mixed-media work in black and white, created in 2026, sold with frame direct from the artist.
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Description from the seller
On an empty board, one knight remains standing. Not the queen, not the king, but the piece built for sideways moves and unexpected turns, the one that survives when the straighter pieces do not.
A single hard light falls from above, catching the carved ridges of its mane and drawing a long shadow that pools forward across the dark. Everything else recedes into a black so deep it reads as absence rather than colour, a stage built for one figure and nothing more.
No paint. No print. No ink. The knight in A Piece Left Standing is built through controlled scratches, not applied onto the surface of the acrylic glass but scratched directly into it, until the image sits in the surface itself, taken from within rather than laid on top.
The image is always present, with or without direct light. Light does not create it, it sharpens it. Under a moving light or a shifting angle, the scratches catch and reflect, and the contrast deepens. The work reads differently from one angle to the next, without ever losing the knight at its centre.
Seen from across a room, the piece is monumental, a single silhouette holding its ground in the dark. Close up, that same silhouette dissolves into a field of fine, deliberate scratches, proof that this stillness was built, not simply found.
A knight left alone on the board is not a piece that has won. It is a piece that has not yet lost, still upright when so much around it has fallen, still capable of an unexpected move. That quiet, stubborn endurance is the real subject of this work.
A Piece Left Standing continues the Art with Scratch series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print. A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure.
"Still standing is its own kind of victory."
About Art with Scratch
Art with Scratch is a body of work in which the image is not drawn, but released. Carved line by line into a deep black surface, each work emerges through countless precise scratches that catch the light and bring form out of darkness.
From a distance, the image appears almost photographic. Powerful, recognisable and full of presence. Yet up close, the work dissolves into a dense field of individual marks. Fine, fragile and almost weightless. What seemed solid reveals itself as a delicate web of lines, each one a deliberate gesture, each one essential to the whole.
Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The black surface absorbs, while the scratched lines reflect. As light shifts across the surface, the image breathes. From one angle the figure stands clear and defined. From another it softens and settles back toward the darkness from which it came, without ever disappearing. Under a focused spotlight, the contrast deepens and the image takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality.
What makes this medium so compelling is its quiet tension. The act of scratching is direct and irreversible. Every line is a decision that cannot be undone. Yet the result is not harsh. It is intimate, atmospheric and alive with movement. Hardness becomes softness. Destruction becomes creation. Absence becomes presence.
In works such as this portrait, the figure is never fully fixed. Through the interplay of line, light and shadow, the image shifts with perspective and atmosphere. At certain moments, the subject seems to step forward out of the black. At others, it settles back into stillness. It is within that movement, between sharpness and calm, that the work comes alive.
Like all materials touched by time, the surface carries its own quiet life. Each scratch holds a moment, a breath, a gesture. Together they form not just an image, but a presence, one that continues to reveal itself with every change of light.
About the Artist
My name is Tijs Dragtsma, founder of TD Fine Art Studio.
As an artist, I am driven by a constant desire to explore new visual languages. I do not see art as a fixed style, but as an evolving field of discovery where material, structure, light and emotion come together.
My work often begins with a simple question. How can a material speak in a new way. How can hardness become intimacy. How can precision create emotion. That search lies at the heart of everything I create.
Within TD Fine Art Studio, each body of work is approached as its own world, with its own logic, atmosphere and visual identity. Some works are built through rhythm, repetition and structure. Others emerge through absence, shadow, reflection or tension. What connects them is a shared commitment to originality, clarity and emotional presence.
I am fascinated by contrast. Between strength and fragility. Between control and feeling. Between what is visible and what is left open to interpretation. My goal is not simply to make an image, but to create a work that holds attention, invites reflection and continues to reveal itself over time.
TD Fine Art Studio is the space in which these explorations come together. It is not only a studio, but an evolving artistic universe shaped by curiosity, precision and the ambition to create work that feels distinctive, intentional and alive.
On an empty board, one knight remains standing. Not the queen, not the king, but the piece built for sideways moves and unexpected turns, the one that survives when the straighter pieces do not.
A single hard light falls from above, catching the carved ridges of its mane and drawing a long shadow that pools forward across the dark. Everything else recedes into a black so deep it reads as absence rather than colour, a stage built for one figure and nothing more.
No paint. No print. No ink. The knight in A Piece Left Standing is built through controlled scratches, not applied onto the surface of the acrylic glass but scratched directly into it, until the image sits in the surface itself, taken from within rather than laid on top.
The image is always present, with or without direct light. Light does not create it, it sharpens it. Under a moving light or a shifting angle, the scratches catch and reflect, and the contrast deepens. The work reads differently from one angle to the next, without ever losing the knight at its centre.
Seen from across a room, the piece is monumental, a single silhouette holding its ground in the dark. Close up, that same silhouette dissolves into a field of fine, deliberate scratches, proof that this stillness was built, not simply found.
A knight left alone on the board is not a piece that has won. It is a piece that has not yet lost, still upright when so much around it has fallen, still capable of an unexpected move. That quiet, stubborn endurance is the real subject of this work.
A Piece Left Standing continues the Art with Scratch series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print. A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure.
"Still standing is its own kind of victory."
About Art with Scratch
Art with Scratch is a body of work in which the image is not drawn, but released. Carved line by line into a deep black surface, each work emerges through countless precise scratches that catch the light and bring form out of darkness.
From a distance, the image appears almost photographic. Powerful, recognisable and full of presence. Yet up close, the work dissolves into a dense field of individual marks. Fine, fragile and almost weightless. What seemed solid reveals itself as a delicate web of lines, each one a deliberate gesture, each one essential to the whole.
Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The black surface absorbs, while the scratched lines reflect. As light shifts across the surface, the image breathes. From one angle the figure stands clear and defined. From another it softens and settles back toward the darkness from which it came, without ever disappearing. Under a focused spotlight, the contrast deepens and the image takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality.
What makes this medium so compelling is its quiet tension. The act of scratching is direct and irreversible. Every line is a decision that cannot be undone. Yet the result is not harsh. It is intimate, atmospheric and alive with movement. Hardness becomes softness. Destruction becomes creation. Absence becomes presence.
In works such as this portrait, the figure is never fully fixed. Through the interplay of line, light and shadow, the image shifts with perspective and atmosphere. At certain moments, the subject seems to step forward out of the black. At others, it settles back into stillness. It is within that movement, between sharpness and calm, that the work comes alive.
Like all materials touched by time, the surface carries its own quiet life. Each scratch holds a moment, a breath, a gesture. Together they form not just an image, but a presence, one that continues to reveal itself with every change of light.
About the Artist
My name is Tijs Dragtsma, founder of TD Fine Art Studio.
As an artist, I am driven by a constant desire to explore new visual languages. I do not see art as a fixed style, but as an evolving field of discovery where material, structure, light and emotion come together.
My work often begins with a simple question. How can a material speak in a new way. How can hardness become intimacy. How can precision create emotion. That search lies at the heart of everything I create.
Within TD Fine Art Studio, each body of work is approached as its own world, with its own logic, atmosphere and visual identity. Some works are built through rhythm, repetition and structure. Others emerge through absence, shadow, reflection or tension. What connects them is a shared commitment to originality, clarity and emotional presence.
I am fascinated by contrast. Between strength and fragility. Between control and feeling. Between what is visible and what is left open to interpretation. My goal is not simply to make an image, but to create a work that holds attention, invites reflection and continues to reveal itself over time.
TD Fine Art Studio is the space in which these explorations come together. It is not only a studio, but an evolving artistic universe shaped by curiosity, precision and the ambition to create work that feels distinctive, intentional and alive.
Details
Artist
Tijs Dragtsma (1992)
Sold with frame
Yes
Sold by
Direct from the artist
Edition
Original
Title of artwork
A Piece Left Standing
Technique
Mixed media
Signature
Signed
Country of origin
Netherlands
Year
2026
Condition
Excellent condition
Colour
Black, White
Height
51 cm
Width
51 cm
Style
Contemporary
Period
2020+
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