Babette Cooijmans
Cityscapes O no.1, lithography and silkscreen on Bunkoshi paper, 63,5 x 43,8 cm, 2019
“The craftsmanship that is needed to work with print gives me a certain flow. I really enjoy the intense, slow and tactile process.”
Babette Cooijmans is a visual artist who lives and works in Antwerp (Belgium). She brings color to her images in an intuitive manner. In her work she explores the sense of place. Babette directly draws patterns from her experience of landscape and uses mainly lithography or silkscreen to reproduce these patterns and layer them to create unique works.
The results of Babette’s process-based approaches are geometric abstract monoprints with high transparency and tactility. She often adds layers to her work with paint, varnish or colored pencil. Currently she is exploring new surfaces to print on including: felt, linen, ceramic clay and glass plates.
What would your work be without color?
I don’t see myself as a colorist. My work is first and foremost minimal and monochrome. Making art is a process where all senses come in, and color is not the first part of this process for me. The matrix I start with is a simple line pattern.
When I start to print and build up the image it’s a chain of action and reaction. How is the composition growing, how do shapes and background come together, how do the colors vibrate and tie the piece together?
So I can't just skip color. It's always present, even when I decide not to use it. Even when looking at the surfaces I print my patterns on: these are never without a sense of color themselves. Without color my work would be cold and distant. And these are the last words I would connect to my images.
“When I start to print and build up the image it’s a chain of action and reaction.”
0-Horizons (artist proof) silkscreen and color pencil on painted paper, 32 x 24 cm, 2020
Counterparts II, no. 13/21/27, silkscreen monoprint on painted paper, 14 x 11 cm (each), 2020
Where do you reside between technical and intuitive in your work as an artist using color?
I usually start with drawing a line pattern and transfer the pattern to a lithostone or silkscreen. This way I create a matrix. I translate the sense of place into my work. Slowly I add layers of the pattern to the surface. There is not a fixed plan. I start with a vague image in my head about the composition and what color scheme I want to use for the series.
I don’t use a sketchbook–preliminary design blocks my creativity. I prefer to start with words that describe the sense of place I want to depict. Often I start with the title of a new series. The words will inspire me to choose the composition and the colors that belong to the image.
Producing prints that are technically perfect is not my concern. The craftsmanship that is needed to work with print gives me a certain flow. I really enjoy the intense, slow and tactile process. This process is pure intuition, trial and error. Every decision is a reaction on the previous step. The overlap of the line pattern produces new shapes but also creates shades or mixtures of the colors I add. I think of it like I am painting with printmaking techniques.
Terrain Vague VI no.4, silkscreen monoprint on painted paper, 60 x 75 cm, 2019
Colourfields II no.13, silkscreen and colorpencil on painted paper, 59,5 x 74,5 cm, 2020
Colourfields II no.4, silkscreen and color pencil on painted paper, 59,5 x 74,5 cm, 2020. Exhibition view Le Pluriel groupshow at Shoobil Gallery Antwerp November-December 2021
Flotsam 1 & 2, woodcut and copypaper drawing on Kozo paper, 190 x 97 cm, 2021. Exhibition view Edition Basel groupshow at Atelier Mondial Basel July 2021
How does color represent or support the mind space of your work?
A true eye-opener was the book Interaction of Color by Josef Albers. His conviction that “practice is not preceded but followed by theory” freed me from the concern that I should respect and apply rules of a more traditional academic color theory.
I pick and combine colors according to the memory of place I have. I love the trial and error method: not taking into account strict rules on how color schemes work. Just mixing and printing colors as they come. I definitely agree with Josef Albers that colors are in a continuous state of flux and can only be understood in relation to the other colors that surround them.
For this reason I would never print on a bright white and clean paper. The surface I print on is carefully selected and prepared. I like Japanese or Chinese papers for their transparency and smooth surface. Heavy European papers I paint with blackboard paint to get a matte dark grounding that I print on with whites, soft pastel shades and saturated colors. It enhances depth and tactility in the final result.
The faults that come with my way of working I fully embrace. I think the imperfections you can detect in all the layers of the works, and the intuitive mixture and use of colors makes my images more sensitive and authentic.
Colourfields III no.3, silkscreen and colorpencil on painted paper, 59,5 x 50 cm, 2021
Loom Mirage, silkscreen, colorpencil and colored varnish on painted canvas, 17 x 20,5 cm, 2020. Exhibition view Le Pluriel groupshow at Shoobil Gallery Antwerp November-December 2021