Bart Janssen

Bart Janssen was born in the Netherlands. He is trained as a physicist, with a specialism in Elementary Particle Physics.  Janssen worked for 5 years as a Research Scientist at CERN in Geneva. Subsequently working for 15 years for a financial company in Switzerland. During his career Janssen attended short drawing and sculpture courses but due to workload and stress was never able to develop his artistic ambitions to his satisfaction.    

Since 2015 sculpture has played an important role in his activities. Without a formal art education Janssen has learnt the craft through a large number of workshops, mainly from (ex-)tutors at the Florence Academy of Art, Heatherley School of Art, and the Art Academy London. He has lived in London since 2016.

I am fascinated by faces. In the studio, while working on a portrait, I am living for that magical moment when the clay comes to life and the person appears. “Presence” is what I am looking for. I attempt to add drama, character, personality. Impressions, conversations, sentiments, moods (the model’s or mine) are all ingredients to a good portrait sculpture or painting. I am happy with models talking as it will show not only anatomical details that might be characteristic of the sitter, but it could also reveal their emotional states and thinking, which I will attempt to feed back into the portrait.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 16^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.