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FRANS BLEIJI

Schiedam, PAYS-BAS (Netherlands)

Tel. : +31 (0)104734054

Email : info@fransbleiji.nl

Site : www.fransbleiji.nl

 

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

 

Frans Bleiji-  6-11-1950  Leiden, birthplace of Rembrandt.

At the age of 6 years he moved to The Hague where he attended the elementary school and the lower technical school and earned his degree as a house painter.

In the last year he met someone who could draw fantastic, he made a lot of drawings  of old Roman soldiers which blow him away.

After obtaining his degree he went back to Leiden and bought some painters stuff  for on-going to go, however that may last only for a short time, to much on his mind, so, no motivation.

In the years that followed happened a lot, many different jobs, house painting was probably not the way going through life,he also get married in 1978 however, two totally different peoples with totally dfferent intrest is not really a base for a success for a long term so in 1982 it was finished and they separate, he create in those years occasionally some drawings until to ’84 when he was working for his boss and also for himself and in the spare moments that he has at that time he made a drawing from some horses that made him decide to began follow lessons in art.

He went to the Volksuniversity in Vlaardingen where he made a lot of progress in a short time, the strenght of joy and pleasure!!!

Those progress he made was noticed by the teacher and she gave him the advice to start a education at the Academy, what he did in 1986 and he went to the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.

He learned something in the first year however it was not really a success because everything he should learn he already knew by reading books, the only progress that he made was using other materials such as, acryl, aquarel and tempera, but those materials  did not giving him what he expected, well  trying is the only way to find out if it’s suitable and it was’nt.

However it was a pleasant year most of all because everyone asked him for advice about one and other, the power of reading!!

The other reason it was’nt a success, was abstract work, it became more and more abstract and that was certainly, at the moment, not  his kind of work, also the reason that he, in the second year, get some struggles with his teacher and that was for him the reason, the decision, to leave the Academy to find his own way, a way he could’nt find at the Academy.

Eight months of doin nothing was the result of that decision, and than he made the first drawings, drawings who became paintings, and that was the moment he find himself back at his work so all the brakes went loose.

He made his still life paintings but also a totally new branch of work, surrealistic/symbolistic work, totally different of what he usely made but that is what’s always comes back, the adventure in what he was doing, the challenge so  not get bored in his daily business as usual, for him its also ment he can grow, growing in what he want to do, getting  new ideas.

From the moment he had his first exhibition, we speak then of 1988, is there regularly work been sold.

In the initial period he has commissioned many portraits in pencil, in this period he made also his first portait in oil, also in commission, an enemous challenge but a fantastic experience, however the client found it too expensive to buy it, but he has subsequently won a prize with it.

Then he started something why he was leaving the Academy, he started with making abstract paintings, why, it was coming out of himself and let’s call it a part of a adventure, he done that for over a year and then it was over, as following project he made some statues and that brought him to the trompe l’oeil, by making statues you get a very different vieuw of the 3-dimensional, what is the adventage of the adventure, and since than the shadows in his paintings become a priority.

 

 

ARTISTIC PATH

 

He made his first steps in art in 1984 at the Volksuniversity in Vlaardingen, his teacher noticed the progress he made in a short time and gave him the advice to start a education at the Academy. So he did in 1986 at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. In the second year he finished it because the lessons became to abstract and such won’t fit at his way of working, so he was going his own way and became a self-thaught artist.

A note about his work (trompe-l’oeil).

Have objects been stuck on or pinned to the canvas.

It certainly seems like it; you bend over and involuntary want to feel with your fingers whether the push pin has or has not actually been inserted into the canvas.

It hasn't.

One of many notables reactions to Frans Bleiji’s work, referring to the use of trompe-l’oeil. While using the techniques of chiaroscuro and especially trompe-l’oeil, Frans succeeds in breathtakingly capturing the essence of the subject and the underlyig thoughts. But he is not a artist who likes to tie himself down to one particular way of working although his approach should always contain a aspect of realism.

Whatever course he chooses to pursue, realism will always be part of the new route.

For example, his recent work is a fusion of “work after Mondriaan” and realism in a series of work he would like to call “hand in hand”.

And no matter what he produces, the same things always seems to come together in his work because of the fact- and this is certainly worth mentioning here- that Frans is always searching for the third dimension on the flat surface, which why he was given the nickname “the shadow artist” in a newspaper article.

Frans is a self-thaught artist who, after studying at the Royal Academy of Art for more than a year, decided to teach himself everything he needed to know as he felt that the route followed at the academy was not his.

Work in private possession in; Netherland, Belgium, France, England, America, Ireland, Curacao and Switzerland.

 

 

SHORT LIST OF EXHIBITIONS – SOLO / GROUP 

 

1994

  

Gallery Basalt,  Amsterdam    

 

1995/ ‘96 / ‘99 

 

Gallery  Anton Gidding, The Hague 

 

1996 

 

Nicexpo, Nice 

 

1997 

 

Gallery Bizare, The Hague      

 

Holland Art Fair, The Hague, (1997/ ’98) 

 

Bonefro, Italy 

 

World Trade Centre,  Curacao 

 

1998 

 

Art Expo, New York 

 

1999 / 2000 

 

Het Erf van Reijne, Krommenie 

 

2001/ ‘02/ ‘03 

 

De Heeren van Voorburg 

 

2001 

 

Artiade The Hague 

 

2003

 

Arts & Antiques, J. Hilleman, Arnhem 

 

Lanart   Lichtaart, Belgium    

 

Art-Event Antwerp, Belgium 

 

2004 

 

Art-Event Haarlem 

 

2004/ ‘05/ ‘06 / ‘07 

 

Gallery Babs Voskuil, Delft 

 

Artipico Art Gallery Schiedam 

 

2004 

 

Miljonairs Art Fair, Amsterdam 

 

2006 

 

Salon for International Artists, Spa Belgium 

 

Gallery Lewis Guy The Hague 

 

2007 

 

Gallery Staf Schoeters Brasschaat, Belgium 

 

38th Salon, Academie International de Lutece, Paris

(On this Salon winner of a gold medal)  

 

2007/ ‘08 

 

Gallery Thuillier, Paris 

 

2008 

 

The White Room Gallery Galway, Ireland 

 

2009/ ‘10 

 

Primavera, Rotterdam 

 

2012 

 

Dutch Art Exhibition, Dubai 

 

2013 

 

Annual Dutch Art Fair, Amsterdam 

 

2014 

 

Arts & Antiques G. Bronsgeest, Dordrecht 

 

Hilton hotel, Stockholm 

 

Hilton hotel, Antwerpen 

 

2015 

 

START Art Fair Strasbourg, France   

 

Affordable Art Fair - Amsterdam   

 

Hilton hotel London, England  

 

Caroussel du Louvre, Paris  

  

International Modern Art Fair, Austria   

 

Internationale Biennale, Austria    

 

2016 

 

Galleria Farini, Bologna   

 

Gallery v. Veen, Dordrecht    

 

Nationale Kunstdagen Art Fair, Rotterdam  

 

2017 

 

Marziart  International Gallery - Hamburg, Germany  

 

Art Montreux

 

Paviaart - Pavia, Italie  

 

2018 

   

Vermeer Centrum - Delft  

 

Work in private possession in, Netherland, Belgium, France, England, America, Ireland and Switzerland

 

 

AWARDS

 

Medaille d’Or,  38^e Grand Concours International,  Academié International de Lutèce, 2007

 

Modern Art Austria Award, 2015

 

Sandro Botticelli Award, 2015

 

Roma Internazional Prize, 2015

 

Marco Polo International Prize, 2015

 

Michelangelo International Prize, 2015

 

Il David di Bernini Award, 2015, Academia Italia in Arte del Mondo

 

Minerva International Award, 2016, Academia Italia in Arte del Mondo

 

Special Award Anne Frank, 2016, Academia Italia in Arte del Mondo