Walter van Oel shows his 'Spirit of Jewels'

Walter van Oel shows his 'Spirit of Jewels'

Marian Caroll, Contributor, Denpasar, Bali

He said his paintings were the first in the world that did not take the light, but gave the light.

Specks of spittle fly out of his mouth as Dutch artist Walter van Oel gesticulates grandly with his arms, his blue-gray eyes ablaze with passion as the unruly white ringlets on his head bounce around excitably and sweat trickles down the stubble on his face and neck.

"You can say it is dirty work, you can say you don't like it, but you cannot say you have seen it anywhere else in the world," declared the energetic, yet plump, 61-year-old, who lives half of each year in Bali.

At the opening of his latest exhibition, he wore no shirt, only a simple white cocktail jacket exposing the heavy silver chains on his hairy chest, and matching three-quarter length pants.

He could almost pass for a circus ringmaster, yet he was graceful as he moved around the gallery, almost dancing around his audience while explaining concepts like cosmic energy and the Hindu taksu power worshiped in village temples that drives him when he paints.

He called his latest work spiritual jewels, an allusion to the reverence he has for Eastern cultures and their appreciation of man's powerlessness in the cosmic world; their enlightenment.

I could not pretend I was on the same wave-length, nor was I an art critic, but I did found myself drawn to his genius.

He used bold, intense colors: reds, blues, bright pinks and greens, the intensity and tone of which change with the light.

But what struck you most was the unique technology he used to create what looks like crumpled up masses of wrapping paper pulsing with energy: a raised cosmic egg on a canvas of paint.

Van Oel refused to divulge his methods, but did admit that he used real metals to produce such striking effects. Sometimes he used 22.5 carat gold, in other instances copper or aluminum. Always the results were arresting.

"When a collector comes to my studio in Holland, I say if they have seen this technology anywhere else in the world, I will give it (the piece of art) to them for free," said van Oel, who has taken part in more than 30 exhibitions worldwide and whom a recent book Eye to Eye puts his work on a par with the likes of Picasso, Chagall and Karel Appel.

His love of painting took hold at the age of 12, and he shunned museums and galleries, instead preferring to work alone before studying art at the Royal Academy of Art, the Hague.

He found inspiration in the suffering of other cultures, first honoring African art because "I felt sorry for how we had used them in earlier times"; then Chinese "because thousands of years ago China was abstract perfection, when we were still apes, China had the most civilized world"; then Jewish "although I don't agree with their politics"; and Tibetan "when I used the color black for the first time ever to reflect the massacre of the people by the Chinese".

Now, he said he was honoring Balinese culture and art by incorporating Hindu gods into his works, which, together with some Chinese calligraphy, melted the east and west in one medium.

The western world, whose "most stupid sickness is loneliness, not cancer" could learn a lot from Balinese spirituality, he said during his speech at the opening, praising the peaceful way the Balinese reacted to the October 2002 terrorist attack that devastated their economy and shattered many lives.

"It is an example for the whole world in the future."

It was this harmonic existence that van Oel was drawn to four years ago when he decided to set up his studio in Sanur, where he works seven days a week, usually for eight hours without a break. It is hard work and he sweats from the physical exertion of putting his whole body into his art.

But Bali offers him the means to completely unwind. Upon finishing a painting, "I pick a jepun (frangipani) from the gods and I am at peace," he said. "I have found the world in Bali."

Indeed, he feels an affinity with, and reverence for, Bali's Hindu beliefs and traditions.

"Matter does not exist, only energy exists, as Hindus have known for thousands of years some countries can afford themselves to talk about clean water and clean air, but who's talking about the clean output of energy from a painting?" he rhetorted.

Although a few heads in the audience nod in agreement, I do not entirely follow his meaning, but it does not matter anyway. His work speaks for itself.

The Walter van Oel Spiritual Jewels exhibition is showing at the Agung Rai Museum of Art in Ubud. An exhibition of another 60 specially designed pieces goes on show at the Alila Ubud Gallery from Dec. 27. During opening week visitors will be able to see van Oel turning silver paintings into gold and are invited to join him for a unique painting workshop. Phone the Alila on 0361 975 963 for details.