Sails drying. (#2232)

In 1968 I was asked to restore a very small painting that had a hole in the canvas. Possibly a chair leg went through it. I was not a great master piece but it was late 17th century, The painting was severely cracked and very dirty on top of all this! Being a challenge to fix a hole of more than 1 inch, the canvas there was missing, I needed to re-canvas it clean it and fill the missing part. This was going to be expensive. In order to do the best I could I had to copy the painting to have reference and to know the picture before it would be impossible to imagine it in case the paint would not hold. I quoted the job and the people said; "forget it, you can have it." Well that was the' inspiration' to paint a seascape in the 17th century style, but as I am also an artist, I embellished it greatly, and gave the 'picture' a second life. In all honesty this has become a master piece in its own right, and I am very happy with it.

Follow

Kivits’ classic oeuvre includes not only original Still-life’s, but also Fruit and Floral compositions, Landscapes, Seascapes and Figurative works in glazes of oil-paint. Predominantly tapping into his antique collection for inspiration, his works take considerably longer to produce; hence a small number of masterpieces are created annually.
True traditional realism, all in the line from the Sixteenth century European Masters onward, he is staying true to these time-proven styles, refusing digital means to aid his work, e.g. projection, pre-printed canvas, grid tracings, or anything but the skill of his own eyes to hand.
Dutch-born Kivits' has firmly established himself in Australia as a legitimate Brand over the years, and his creations have found their ways to art lovers in many developed countries.