Lieven Van de Vel is a figurative oil painter from Antwerp, Belgium. Born in 1974, it soon became apparent that he had inherited the talent from his mother, who was a kindergarten teacher. He started attending drawing school at the age of eleven. He never quit until he went to college to study architecture. There he had to draw more than ever. In the end, he didn’t finish his studies and went in a different direction. Then it went quiet for a while. From 2006 it started to itch again and he started drawing and painting again now and then. It is only from 2013 that he really went for it and enrolled in an (oil) painting course. As a former draftsman, the greatest challenge was to learn to work in a painterly manner. After a somewhat hesitant start, his style is gradually loosened to arrive at a freer and more expressive style. Starting with a series of paintings of dead trees, a bold approach comes in to play whereby instead of using gesso primer, he uses a coat of very bright color in acryl. The oil painting is then set up on this. This does not just ensure a great coherence in the whole image, but some parts also remain deliberately open, resulting in an image full of contrast and brightness. Often, he uses raw and worn out archive footage as a starting point which leads to a beautiful rawness and also honesty. More and more he becomes detached from the original colors on the image from which he starts. An innocent holiday film of rafting people is transformed into an almost apocalyptic atmosphere, which is very surprising due to the unusual colors and texture. In this way, these images are transformed and a rough, swirling, effervescent and sparkling painting is created from which the color splashes off.