Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - Half a Face in Silver

Half a Face in Silver holds a woman at the edge of recognition, caught between the mask she wears and the dark that keeps the rest of her hidden. The right side of her face catches the light, the silver filigree of the mask traced in a field of fine scratches, her eye staring straight out. The left side dissolves, cheek and hairline given over to the black, as if half of her chose to step forward and the other half chose to stay in the shadow.

There is no paint and no print here. The image is scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass, built from a field of individual marks that catch and hold the light rather than sit on top of it. What reads as soft shading from a distance breaks apart, up close, into the controlled surface damage that makes the whole work, line after line forming cheekbone, collarbone, the curl of hair against the dark.

The mask is the heart of the piece, an old device for hiding a face that here becomes the very thing the light chooses to reveal. Her shoulder and throat glow as a dense field of fine scratches, bare and unguarded, while the masked half of her face stays composed, ornamental, closed. The tension between the two, concealment worn as decoration against skin left plain and open, is what gives the work its charge.

Light does not create this image. It sharpens it. Under direct light the scratches catch and deepen, the mask's detail gains weight, and the woman's gaze grows more insistent. Seen from another angle, the same portrait settles into something quieter, the silver receding back toward black, without ever losing the face underneath.

Half a Face in Silver continues the Art with Scratch series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print. It asks a simple question with no simple answer, how much of a person can be hidden before what remains is more honest than the face itself. This work is unique.

"A mask does not hide a face. It decides which half gets to be seen."

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.

This listing contains AI-generated visualisations. Please refer to the original photographs to assess the actual condition of the object.