Tijs Dragtsma (1992) - Poseidon in the Blue

Poseidon in the Blue brings the sea god back from myth into a space that is also a mirror. His head floats alone against a deep blue ground, crowned with shells and framed by a beard that moves like current, built entirely from a field of fine scratches cut into coloured mirror glass. The image exists because of what has been taken away. Every strand of hair, every fold of the beard, every plane of the god's weathered face is formed where the surface has been opened and left to catch the light, while the untouched glass around it holds the dark, undisturbed blue of open water. Blue is not decoration here. It is the colour of Poseidon's own element, the sea that gave him his power and his temper, and it carries that weight through the whole work, surrounding the god the way water surrounds everything he rules. Because the image sits in the surface of the mirror glass, the room you stand in becomes part of it. Walls, light fixtures and your own reflection slip into the blue around Poseidon's face, so the work completes itself a little differently in every space it hangs. The scratches are present whether the room is bright or dim, they do not need to be switched on to exist. Light does not create this image. It sharpens it, deepening the contrast and giving the god's expression more weight as the light in the room shifts, while the picture itself never changes. Seen from across a room, Poseidon's face reads as a single monumental presence. Close up, that same face opens into a field of individual marks, controlled surface damage that only resolves into a king of the sea once you step back and let your eye do the work. Poseidon in the Blue continues the Art on Mirror series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which scratched imagery is set into coloured mirror glass and the viewer becomes part of the work. A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure, and where the mirror turns looking into taking part. "The sea does not ask to be seen. It asks to be entered." About Art on Mirror – Blue Art on Mirror is a body of work in which the image is scratched into coloured mirror glass, and the world in front of the work becomes part of it. Every line is cut into a deep blue mirrored surface of acrylic glass. The scratches are always there, bright against the colour, while the surface around them keeps reflecting the room, the daylight and the person looking. From a distance the image reads clear and complete, a pale figure held in a field of blue. Step closer and the work opens into a delicate web of individual marks, fine and deliberate, each one essential to the whole. Behind and between them the mirror does what a mirror does. It carries the room and the viewer into the composition, so the surroundings in the work change with the place where it hangs, while the image itself stays firmly in place. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The blue ground absorbs and reflects, the scratched lines catch and hold, and under a focused spotlight the contrast deepens until the figure takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality. In softer light the colour comes forward and the work settles into a quieter register, without ever losing its subject. Blue is the colour of night, of deep water and of quiet distance. That is the emotional ground every work in this series is set against, and the subjects are chosen to belong to it. Art on Mirror continues the scratched imagery of Art with Scratch by Tijs Dragtsma on a new ground. Where the black works draw their power from absence, these draw it from reflection. The viewer is no longer only looking at the work. The viewer is in it. About the Artist My name is Tijs Dragtsma, founder of TD Fine Art Studio. As an artist, I am driven by a constant desire to explore new visual languages. I do not see art as a fixed style, but as an evolving field of discovery where material, structure, light and emotion come together. My work often begins with a simple question. How can a material speak in a new way. How can hardness become intimacy. How can precision create emotion. That search lies at the heart of everything I create. Within TD Fine Art Studio, each body of work is approached as its own world, with its own logic, atmosphere and visual identity. Some works are built through rhythm, repetition and structure. Others emerge through absence, shadow, reflection or tension. What connects them is a shared commitment to originality, clarity and emotional presence. I am fascinated by contrast. Between strength and fragility. Between control and feeling. Between what is visible and what is left open to interpretation. My goal is not simply to make an image, but to create a work that holds attention, invites reflection and continues to reveal itself over time. TD Fine Art Studio is the space in which these explorations come together. It is not only a studio, but an evolving artistic universe shaped by curiosity, precision and the ambition to create work that feels distinctive, intentional and alive.

Estimation:€3,500

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