Eindhoven native Kevin is 'Severinus star' on canvas
"It's going to be a goofy portrait in the fun sense of the word," Lex Grote said Wednesday, cleaning up his drawing gear. Moments before, the Eindhoven artist made a sketch of Kevin. But also important are the answers Grote gets to his questions and some photos he takes of Kevin.
The portrait is being created as part of Samen voor Eindhoven's "Heartwarming Together" campaign. ,,The campaign started last year. Before that, we collected wishes from nursing homes in the region. From the residents came the wish to be captured on canvas," says Julia Geerts of Samen voor Eindhoven. The set-up is very similar to the TV program 'Stars on the canvas'.
Experience
In addition to nursing homes, care organization Severinus was also approached. There the idea arose to ask a client from the studio. Director Joost Ariëns thought of Kevin. "Joost asked me if I would like it. I was happy to give it a try." Two days a week Kevin paints in the studio. In addition, as an expert by experience in the field of autism, he mainly visits colleges. There he explains what autism means to him and talks about the path he is on to live independently.
Grote was asked whether he wanted to portray a senior or a young guest. "I chose a young guest with ambition and that turned out to be Kevin." He also sees that ambition reflected in some of the paintings Kevin did. "He has a sense of detail, color and composition." While sketching, Grote also discovers that his subject is a bird lover. "I'm a real birdwatcher. It would be nice to have birds in the painting," he hints.
Place of Honor
The portrait will be ready in early January and will then be handed to Kevin. Whether it will get a place of honor in the Van Wijnsberge home afterwards remains to be seen. ,,I still have to think about that. I do have a website on which I put a lot of my own work."
He is not the last "star" on the canvas as part of the campaign. Geerts: ,,We would love to have an exhibition later. This is now the third portrait. We want to continue it until we have a dozen or so."