We, Painter Aron Kroes and photographer Merette Uiterwaal, first started making work together during the global pandemic in 2020. Merette’s abstract portraits were the starting point of a new series of work made together with Aron.

Individually our work revolves around the research of ‘identity’. It was almost natural that we started experimenting together, one coming from photography and the other from paint. Merette’s abstract black and white portraits create the outlines for how Aron applies the paint an intuitive and expressive way. The use of the naked body as a blank canvas allows the paint to works in a way as clothing and make-up works for an actor; it creates this new character to the portrait. Although the work focuses on the reproduction of us on camera, the result should not be seen as self-portraits.

The process starts by outlining an aesthetic visual idea. After the idea phase we have a photoshoot and make a selection of the photos we would like to work on. After the prints are made we start thinking of how the paint should be applied and in which colours. This last point, the colours, always brings an extra dimension. Not only in an evident way, in that Merette views the world in a different way compared to Aron, but also because Merette is colour blind. After Merette got glasses that made her see colours, the colour pallet she works with expanded. With this new view on the world and her work, she brings a new vision on the colours they use in their work. After the first few works are finalised, we repeat this process until the series is finished.