love for the city

8/9/2019 Love for the City

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The Breeze,The Air and The Smell of The City
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T ravelling has became a way of living or so called 'lifestylemobility' for more people than ever in the past. Many peoplewant to experience the tourism, expecting the best of theplace could offered. Some of them want to taste the localfood. Others say that they want to feel the culture. For aDutch born artist, Jeroen Hermkens, he wants to feelsomething deeper. With his undoubted eyes of an artist, heobserves the surrounding even on the corner of the city thathe visits. He wants to feel the air and the smell of living just likethe local citizens. Only with that he would take sketches onthe spot he is interested in the city.

Jeroen's artworks has been internationally acknowledged,especially his lithography works of cities around the world. Heholds exhibition of his fine works for more than 20 years. Hehad potrayed his experience through his visit in New York,Rome, Vienna, Tokyo, Istanbul, Kyoto and many more. Alsoextensive works of numerous cities of his homeland, theNetherlands. Each of those places, Jeroen looked at thedifferent angles from his curiousity of the cities. He tooksketches from Railway lines, pedestrian streets, riversides,

even the views from restaurants and cafes whdrew.

In the Dutch culture centre, Erasmus Huis Jaklihtograph and painting exhibition as the start for the gallery. The exhibition shows the best chomeland's citues and from his short visit in Ja



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With Love, from The Duch CitiesI walked around the exhibition room, pretty much enjoying theview of remarkable painting and lithograph. The lithograph

series of Dutch cities are exceptionally great. For someonewho had lived in the country for more than five years, when Isaw his works, I could felt the breeze of the peaceful and quitewind from the 'centrum' street above the canals. I could

imagine sitting down inthe cafe's terracereading a book or

chatting with couple offriends while enjoyingthe city landmarkbuildings. For those whonever been to thecountry, you wouldimagine somewhere calm

and ease, places that you could walk aroundand by the end of theday, you would filled bycharm of the city and its

people. But for those have been there, you wo you would have those good memories, you woare in those places one more time. It's like a bwrapped in artworks. That is what Jeroen simpressions of the cities from his homeland.

Jeroen Hermkens was born, raised and studiedone of the big cities in The Netherlands. The cits cultural, artistic and beautiful city in the coto the other big cities, Utrecht really preserv



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authentic building and churches from ancient time. The cityholds numbers of art exhibitions and culture events. It is nowonder that Jeroen and many of Dutch artists could growntheir talents in this city.

Beside the exhibition room, there is a library which the layoutvery similar with the one of my former university, very muchDutch, simple and neat. In front of the library, it displays artbooks collection of the artist journey. The thickest book wasJeroen's collecrion of his beloved hometown, Utrecht City. Iimmediately picked up the book then took a chair in thelibrary. I sat down for almost 30 minutes turning the pages fullof lithograph photos of Utrecht. On the sideline, he tellsstories of each work how much the city has been inspired him.The focus on his works are not what people commonly found,he wants to tell that there are more beauty lie within the city. Itshows in his works that he also pay a lot of attention to thestreets, the trees even the reflection in the water. Thedefinition of color that he used is finely composed.Other Dutch cities that displayed on the exhibition such as Amsterdam Groningen, Rotterdam, Leiden, and so on.



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Jakarta on First ImpressionIn recent years, he visited Jakarta. Althougmeant for another job, it was the first time

country. For a week he toured Jakarta in tthe passenger seat of scooters. His impJakarta was tremendous. The heat, the chand the tropical storm of the city would mto take shelter. The scene of Bajaj in the rafrom his standing view on a train station a


Surprising colours, yellow, even bright violet. That ca

making a painting...

-Jeroen Hermke


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He also went to old port of Sunda Kelapa, which he said asthe most beautiful harbours he has ever seen. The color of thewooden cargo ships with natural curved shapes called him formaking a painting. He observed the hectic activities of theworkers in old fashion way, like a man carried a bag sack ofcement. "A feast for an artist" that what he said. He sat downand started to draw. Heading back from Sunda Kelapa,Jeroen acrossed Pluit district, a densely populated in theNorthern Jakarta. He was amazed by the chaos alleys wherenot getting lost is impossible for a visitor like himself. Until aschool bus full of smiling children gave him a lift. The followingdays, he also visited Tanjung Priok, Jakarta's main port. Hesaw the modern port was being constructed. He set one daysail on a large ship. The construction was to expand the citywith new islands.

Back in his studio in Utrecht, Jeroen spread his drawings ofhis visit to Jakarta. He walked around them for a few weeks tolet the drawings work on him. The images and memories wouldcome back to him naturally. Then he decided which drawingswere the best representations of his trip. Out of them, hemade mostly paintings in canvas and one lithograph that I

found was the Bajaj in the rain. In his otherusually focus on life events in the city and leaempty. But for the first time, he could not avopeople in the rain and in the harbour could bewhat the city left its impression on him.


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ayu hannisfa

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love for the city

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