Be with me because I love you

Rombout Oomen

'Be with me because  I love you'

The works of Dutch artist Rombout Oomen may vary in their visual style, but the context and story of his images always revolve around his individual interests and personal view of depicting sociological, social, and natural phenomena. Rombout's works tell stories inspired by our current society but are interpreted into his personal universe and realm. They are bright, colorful, and convey an extravert energy. These are individualistic pictures depicting how, according to him, the world at large and his inner world intertwine.

Rombout is trained in a Dutch manner, but the visual language is clearly northern European and contemporary expressionistic. Visually, the paintings are strongly inspired by several periods he lived in Germany. Over the years he has developed a personal technique and style for his figurative and narrative images.
He experiences painting as a spiritual journey towards a conclusion, which can’t be reached literally. Although a conclusion of a journey without an end is a contradiction, the narrative of this journey is being visualised in his paintings.

'For years I regularly walk early in the morning on elephant paths between trees and shrubs in a garden that my father has cultivated. Paths that make their way through nature, nature that tries to take over everything with great dedication. Paths that lead deeper and deeper into the garden, where natural shelter falls over your shoulders like a blanket.

Natural shelter that provides security to the soul.

Everything here is has been made personally, trees have been planted and released, sawn stumps are weathered and generate new life. Every spring an amount of greenery explodes that continues to amaze and that is almost impossible to prune.

Everything in the garden is made of things that have been found and came into being, things that are going to take on their own lives, adhering to their own laws and own regularity.

That garden has become the mirror of my father's soul and that garden has inspired me to create an extensive, growing series of paintings.

The unrelenting fascination for light and natural composition, for the reason for life, life force and natural selection, has permanently carved its way through my work. Like elephant paths in a forest of possibilities, contradictions and solutions'.