MW

Hi! Thanks for checking out my art page. My name is Mike Woning and I love painting.

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But maybe I love surfing even more 😉.

Being a surfer, I love the sea, especially waves. I follow a number of talented national and international wave photographers via Instagram that feed my stoke when I can't surf enough myself (can you ever?). Actually, being a surfer is what got me into painting. I had shaped a board a few years back, using foam from an old windsurf board. This required a tonne of repair work to the foam before I could even get started with shaping (tip: don’t try this at home). The result was a surfable but blotchy, ugly looking board that urgently needed a cosmetic make-over. Checking around online, I ran into several super cool videos about pimping your ride. Turning my hand to painting my home-made board, I found out that I really enjoyed decorating boards using paint pens and was pretty decent at it too! So, I did my other 2 boards, and then a few skateboards and a skimboard. But then I ran out of boards to paint… However, the creative seed was planted, and I picked up an actual brush and bought canvas and paint in tubes in January 2018; have been painting ever since. I started off painting waves (hence the website name). Obviously, waves are the source of my fun as a surfer but their power, grace and flowing lines make them easy to love. As well as the reflections, cast shadows, sun light shimmering through the water, etc, etc.

But... not only waves! One of the ways to get better as a painter is to paint outside: painting ‘en plein air’. And after some initial inhibitions to paint outside in public, I started painting landscapes too. Painting scenes around my hometown of Barendrecht (Netherlands) that I find beautiful, that catch my eye. I like showing that even though I live pretty close to a big city (Rotterdam), there is still enough beauty to be found: you just need to open your eyes! And look for it, which by the way is half the fun!

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Both during painting the seascapes as well as the landscapes, I found out that I enjoy cloudscapes also. Which is another main painting subject. So landscapes, seas and skies… ter land, ter zee en in de lucht (the dutchies here will understand the pun, sorry for the non-dutchies). Three of the four elements; still thinking of how to cover ‘fire’ 😉

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Is that all? Well, I like the odd portrait or still life here and there too. But for now the main focus is on these three elements. Mostly in oils but sometimes also acrylics.

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Hope you enjoy my work, feel free to reach out and let me know!

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Regards and Aloha!

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Mike