Pieter Pander Dutch, b. 1962

Pieter Pander (Drachten, 1962) is the youngest son in a family of fourteen children. As a child, he drew a lot and decided to continue in this direction after secondary school. In 1982, he started at the Minerva art academy in Groningen, where he was taught by Jouke Wouda and Matthijs Röling, among others. Pander is considered one of the Northern Realists.

He works in the figurative tradition, but unlike many of his colleagues, his touch is light and sketchy. Only parts of the image are elaborated, making them stand out more emphatically, often the eyes of humans and animals. Pander paints quickly and easily. He uses a limited palette of colours: mainly browns, blues, greys and whites. These are the colours that suit him and with which he can convey intimacy and feeling. His unique use of colour, but also the strong light-dark effect, characterises Pander's work and betrays the influence of his teacher Matthijs Röling. The contrast between the coarse and finely detailed parts of the canvas creates a tension that makes the work worth viewing from both a distance and up close.

De thema's die Pander schildert variëren sterk, afhankelijk van waar zijn belangstelling op dat moment naar uitgaat. Dat kunnen beelden op de televisie zijn, het Friese landschap, de boerderij van zijn zwager of zijn hond die gewond raakt. Hij houdt er niet van zich op één onderwerp te moeten toeleggen.

Pieter Pander is best known as a painter of portraits of people and animals: cows, goats, horses, dogs and other animals. What is most striking about Pieter Pander's portraits is that the subjects are depicted in such a natural way. By choosing an unusual viewpoint without distorting the perspective, he creates a certain alienation, which suddenly makes us see the animal with new eyes. “Every animal has its own personality, its own way of looking and behaving,” he believes. In his respect for animals and the way he depicts them, Pander shows his admiration for the painter Jan Mankes (1889-1920). Pander’s style mirrors the Frisian temperament: his paintings are marked by sobriety and a deliberate avoidance of embellishment, resulting in works that possess a calm, unforced strength.

He has painted portraits of Cardinal Simonis (2008), Matthijs Röling (2010) and King Willem-Alexander (2016), among others, as well as a number of self-portraits.