Michel van Zinnicq Bergmann

Michel van Zinnicq Bergmann (Vught, Netherlands, 1954) is self-taught. He began painting as a hobby while he was a student. Since 1999, he has devoted himself entirely to painting. He now lives and works in Amsterdam.

One of his greatest loves has always been the sea. It was only natural that the sea became an important subject in his paintings.

I always feel good walking along the sea. It fills me with its energy, with air, with freedom. That’s what the sea is to me: freedom. Never boring, always changing, always new. When I arrive at the sea, it always takes my breath away—a moment of pure amazement.

I use oil paint because I can mix the colors directly on the canvas and work wet-on-wet for a long time, whereas acrylic paints dry much too quickly. This way, I can get much closer to what I want: the subtleties and the great variety of colors without losing the straightforward and intuitive approach to painting that is necessary to capture the pure energy of the wind and the waves, which I feel during my walks.

All my seascapes are created in the studio, because the sea needs to be viewed from a distance. I don’t want to create a literal depiction of the sea, but always an imagined one, based on the images I’ve gathered mentally during my walks. This means I cannot use photographs. Photographs would completely block the painting process, limit the freedom I feel when facing the sea, and neutralize the energy needed to create the painting.