"Girl with her pearl"
Hieke, the girl and her career
We have put together several photos of
several reports made for the portfolio of the girl portrayed, Hieke Konings,
before her 18th birthday, in consultation with Hieke herself and with her
parents and grandfather.
From Hieke's 18th birthday, her full-time
career would officially start in the fashion modeling world at Musemodels in
NY. The conversations about this portrait took place 2 months before her 18th
birthday. This day is a special milestone in her life. She left, while the
first sketch was put on the canvas.
Hieke's family, we've all known each other
since elementary school. Hieke is just a normal girl, just like everyone else,
growing up in the south of the Netherlands, the most Burgundian province, in a
warm family.
During a city trip to Paris with her
parents at the age of 13, she was scouted on the subway platform by the leading
modelling agency, Ford Models. This suddenly made her childhood dream come
true, she immediately got a 3 year contract and has been arranged for shorter
periods in Paris and London. From that moment on she got stuck in this
opportunity to pursue her dream, completing her high school and meanwhile
taking on various assignments in the metropolises Milan (Frabbrika Milano),
Paris (Select Models), London, New York and Tokyo (Bravo) and on GO See to work
on her network in the fashion world, gain experience and build a portfolio.
Hieke has worked with IBTM in NL on her development and photobook, all this at
a relatively young age.
At the age of 15 she went to Tokyo on her
own (first supervised by her father) for 3 months and at the age of 16 she
regularly worked shorter periods in NY.
The portrait
We decided to portray Hieke as the
'fashionita to become’ she was before her career would actually start at the
age of 18. To portray Hieke as she is, pure, Hieke the girl from a village in
the south of the Netherlands, with the necessary travel and work experience for
this age, sagacious, sensible and independent, quite self-confident.
The format
A girl with big plans for the future,
that's why we chose the monumental size. The size symbolizes her dream of the
future. For her enthusiasm for the profession.
The transparent and open coloured
compartments, use of colour
A girl with a warm character, spontaneous,
yet modest, well-mannered, balanced and harmonious, this is expressed by the
color combinations in the transparent compartments, her personal color palette,
carefully selected by herself.
The various open and filled transparent
subjects also symbolize the different facets that her life has and will have.
How is she going to show herself to the
outside world, privately and professionally? How does the outside world see
her? This will always be looked at through different glasses, depending on the
perspective of the viewer, the transparency, the openness and the covered
colours are a symbolic reflection of this.
Hieke the Lion
The stories she told elatedly about her
work and adventures in the big cities bear witness to a cast-iron character,
purposeful, dedicated, powerful. With her own physical height, she can best
make an impressive first impression. Her favorite movie is Narnja, the favorite
protagonist in this film is the lion, and her favorite animal is also a lion.
That's why we chose an abstracted lion in the grid and the transparent
surfaces.
The grid
Hieke has an almost symmetrical face, which
allowed us to use a predominantly symmetrical grid that emphasizes this natural
symmetry, as well as the characteristic 'imperfections'. As a portrait painter,
you don't get this opportunity very often, of course. We wanted to accentuate
her determination and straight future plans by the clean lines of the grid.
The Pearl
Perhaps the most important detail in this
portrait is that one pearl, graceful and stylish. This one refers to 'the girl
with the pearl earring' by Johannes Vermeer, which means that Hieke, wherever
in the world she lives in the future, will always remember where her roots lie,
in Nl, just like that other girl with the pearl earring. Her grandmother was
fond on pearls, her mother loves pearls, likes to wear them and Hieke also has
a weakness for them. The pearl is a symbol in their family. Maybe also for the
feminine side of it.
We have deliberately chosen to give the
pearl a relatively smaller size than that of Johannes Vermeer, because it is
mainly a precious symbol for Hieke. It is not about wealth or the financial
value of a pearl, (although it is also often found in Hieke's favourite fashion
house Dior), but ultimately, modestly, and certainly not theatrically, it is
about Hieke's personal warm family memories.
Sharp depth in the portrait
I deliberately chose to apply the most
detail to the middle triangle of the face, first the eyes, then the mouth and
nose to create sharpness and depth. To capture her powerful gaze, to show
fragility in the different skin tones and here and there by turning on the
texture and structure of the pores. The hair, for example, is relatively the
least developed.
Composition
We consciously placed the eyes as attention
grabbers on the golden ratio. Her long neck has been given quite a lot of
space, because this is a very specific appearance characteristic of Hieke.
The Technique
I have used a few layers to accentuate many colours in her skintone. I used
tape for the grid. I have been painting for 220 hours on this portrait.
We decided to portray Hieke as the
'fashionita to become’ she was before her career as a fashion model would
actually start at the age of 18. To portray Hieke as she is, pure, Hieke the
girl from a village in the south of the Netherlands, with the necessary travel
and work experience for this age, sagacious, sensible and independent, quite
self-confident. A girl with big plans for the future, that's why we chose the
monumental size (200 x 150 cm). The size symbolizes her dream of the future.
For her enthusiasm for the profession.
A girl with a warm character, spontaneous,
yet modest, well-mannered, balanced and harmonious, this is expressed by the
color combinations in the transparent compartments, her personal color palette,
carefully selected by herself.
The various open and filled transparent
subjects also symbolize the different facets that her life has and will have.
How is she going to show herself to the
outside world, privately and professionally? How does the outside world see
her? This will always be looked at through different glasses, depending on the
perspective of the viewer, the transparency, the openness and the covered
colours are a symbolic reflection of this.
The stories she told elatedly about her
work and adventures in the big cities bear witness to a cast-iron character,
purposeful, dedicated, powerful. With her own physical height, she can best
make an impressive first impression. Her favorite movie is Narnja, the favorite
protagonist in this film is the lion, and her favorite animal is also a lion.
That's why we chose an abstracted lion in the grid and the transparent
surfaces.
Hieke has an almost symmetrical face, which
allowed us to use a predominantly symmetrical grid that emphasizes this natural
symmetry, as well as the characteristic 'imperfections'. As a portrait painter,
you don't get this opportunity very often, of course. We wanted to accentuate
her determination and straight future plans by the clean lines of the grid.
Perhaps the most important detail in this
portrait is that one pearl, graceful and stylish. This one refers to 'the girl
with the pearl earring' by Johannes Vermeer, which means that Hieke, wherever
in the world she lives in the future, will always remember where her roots lie,
in Nl, just like that other girl with the pearl earring. Her grandmother was
fond on pearls, her mother loves pearls, likes to wear them and Hieke also has
a weakness for them. The pearl is a symbol in their family. Maybe also for the
feminine side of it.
We have deliberately chosen to give the pearl a
relatively smaller size than that of Johannes Vermeer, because it is mainly a
precious symbol for Hieke. It is not about wealth or the financial value of a
pearl, (although it is also often found in Hieke's favourite fashion house
Dior), but ultimately, modestly, and certainly not theatrically, it is about
Hieke's personal warm family memories.
