• All paintings are 180 grams A4  inkjet paper sheets, hand painted on with mainly drawing inks. Also used: bistre and graphite.
• The painted area of the sheets are covered with a thin layer of  alkyd coating varnish.
• The paper part of the sheet is seperated from and (partially) washed off the plastic layer.
• The back of the plastic sheet is painted with white ink. Parts opaque, parts transparent and parts left untouched.
• Elements of the sheet are selected, cut and mounted on wooden panel with bookbinder's glue.
• A thin layer of  alkyd coating varnish is added. The ritual is repeated, and a 'blur' effect is gained from leaving parts of the added sheets empty, so that the newly painted parts become the sharp 'in focus' parts, and the underlying parts get slightly blurred and 'out of focus'.
   

"My technique is not one I at one time 'made up'. I tried thousands of things and combine the ones that work for me. It is not an isolated technique. It took me 8 years to get to the tecnical point where I am now and it is still very much evolving and will probably be completely different again in a couple of years. The particular ink, paper, brushes, water, varnish, laquers, glue and panels I use happen to work for me for now and are useful only to me.
It's just ink and paper. It's no magic ink. Or magic paper. I have been obsessed by my technique -and especially the lack of it an the gaps in it- for years, but only because it withheld me from telling my story and I found myself lost in translation. I try and find and stay true to my own language in imagery, as in my opinon it all comes from gesture -being the aesthetic of the brushstrokes and their emotional impact- your imagination and trying to stay true to yourself. When images come from deep within, regardless the source of inspiration, they're sincere and genuine. And nothing can beat that."

Chris Berens
Amsterdam, August 2011