Ronn Kools

Where do you live: Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Your education: I am a self-taught painter with a BA in Graphic Design.
Describe your art in three words: Figurative – Connecting – Liberating.
Your discipline: At the moment mainly oil on canvas.
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Can you tell us more about your background and how it has influenced your work as an artist?

I started painting on canvas when I was studying at art-school; in Rotterdam (NL). I didn’t paint at the academy itself, but in my small room at a place I shared with my brother. After art-school I moved to London (UK), then to São Paulo (BR), and then to Lisbon (PT). It was only in Lisbon where I started painting again; oil on paper. The rich cultures of all the places I had been had inspired me, but it was in Lisbon where I finally found the peace, I needed to start expressing my own thoughts in an artistic way again. After 3,5 years I moved from Lisbon to Recife (BR), where I was offered a solo-exhibition with all the work I had created in Lisbon. The show was called Till Death Do Us Part. It was a series of ink- and oil-paintings, about the missing of people we love and care about.

After the show I mainly worked on commissioned artworks; experimenting with different techniques and subjects. When I moved to Amsterdam (NL), about 3 years ago, I decided to truly start painting for myself again, and that the work would express a personal message.

My work since then is influenced by the question if there is a place for the sensitive and vulnerable man in today’s society. After having lived in England, Brazil, and Portugal over the last two decades, and being part of the LGBTQIA+ community, I had experienced personally that this question is more relevant now than ever.

The men in my work own the moments of vulnerability they are confronted with. Their fragile state becomes their strength. The paintings I am making, since I am back in The Netherlands, advocate more tolerance and acceptance.

Ronn Kools | Our-hands | 2024

You mentioned that you were born in a small village in the Netherlands but feel that London is where you first felt free. How have these different environments impacted your artistic expression?

Growing up in a small village as a small kid is great. Everybody knows everybody, and it’s very safe. But when I started developing into a teenager and realized that I liked other boys, and that that made me “gay” -that thing people in the village joked and whispered about- the then extrovert kid I was then quickly turned into an introvert teenager. It was only years later, after I finished art school, when I won a flight ticket to London, through an online competition, that I decided, there and then, that I wasn’t going to hide anymore, and that I was going to be fully me again, to life my life, to love whoever I wanted to love, and express myself as an artist.

It could perhaps explain that because of the loneliness in my adolescence most of my artworks only portray one single person. And perhaps because I went to London, and since then, started expressing myself as an artist, and as someone of the LGBTQIA+ community, that most of the subjects in my paintings are guys. But I am no psychologist.

Ronn Kools | Paper-heart | 2024

How did your journey from studying graphic design to becoming a painter shape your artistic approach?

It’s an interesting question. As most artists I have always been drawing. At high school I was drawing instead of taking notes. I knew I wanted to become a recognized artist, and to be able to express myself, but I was a quiet and shy teenager. After high school I started studying graphics and illustration in Antwerp (BE). There I was taught all different kinds of techniques; which I loved. My education continued at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam (NL). I wanted to study painting there, but my parents wanted me to have more job security, and told me to study graphic design. I did, but as I told you in the previous question, I started painting on canvas in my free time at the place I lived back then. The academy didn’t teach me how to paint, but it did teach me about composition and concept. As a painter I would say I am self-taught. My paintings carry a mixture of my own technique and emotions.

Ronn Kools | Inevitable | 2024

Are there any particular artists or movements that have influenced your work?

Figurative art, which pushes the audience to have a feeling of empathy with the artwork has always captured my interest.

When I paint it’s like I am having a nonverbal conversation with the soul of the person I am painting. Their soul has to be expressed in the painting as well as just their exterior. Empathy is key. The viewer has to connect, and feel what the person in the painting is feeling, or at least what he or she thinks this person is feeling.

What role do you think art plays in advocating for tolerance and acceptance in society?

Visibility of the truth breaks down preconceptions. History has mostly shown men as strong and powerful. The vulnerability of men was mostly shown with young boys or very old men. It was seen as a weakness. However, this is slowly changing. In today’s society we see that more and more people are standing up for equal rights; for women, for people with a different skin color, for the disabled, for people from the LGBTQIA+ community, etc. More people start seeing that everybody is the same in being different. Women can be strong, and men can be vulnerable. The men in my paintings may seem vulnerable at first glance, but they are actually the ones controlling the narrative.

Ronn Kools | Cheap-stripes | 2024

Can you share a memorable experience or feedback you’ve received from someone who has viewed your work?

A memorable moment for me was when I showed a yet -up to this date- unfinished painting to one of my best friends recently, and he said he could feel the love between me and the model. He said being painted in a captured moment like that is the love letter only few of us will ever receive.

What advice would you give to emerging artists who are trying to find their voice and style?

Create what you want to create. Don’t be influenced by what might sell well, or by what might do well on social media. There is a market out there for everyone and everything. You do you.