Bart Drost

drawings with pencil, oli/softpastel, etc

Drawings are the basis of the work of Bart Drost. The personal notes of an experience, an experience, of thoughts. Now once they show a dream world, then again it is an attempt to catch the essence of the daily reality in an image. The drawings are independent works of art. More than once, they formed the rise to paintings, sculptures or installations.

looking sheeps - 2024/2025

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

"I walk through the world and look around me. My eyes wander. My gaze falls on a man, a woman, a boy, a child. A cute little dog. The colossal tree is in full bloom. On the leaf a ladybug. The street is busy.

I look. My eyes go from left to right. A restless search. Searching for what? Where does my gaze linger? Where are my eyes drawn to? What demands my attention? Where do I direct my gaze?

On the table lie photos of sheep, from newspapers and magazines. I scan the photos with my eyes. Which fragments stimulate the imagination? What stimulates my senses?

From seven photos I finally choose sixteen fragments. These small pieces of photo automatically take on a life of their own, take me to familiar but also to unsuspected areas.

My pencil dances over the paper. It scratches, it caresses, I draw. With the eraser I wipe away, I add.
Does it make a difference whether you draw a man, a boy, a coffee pot or a sheep?"

who was me - oilpastels - 2023/24

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

For his exhibition 'Gold Leaf Boys - Part 1', Bart Drost subjected his 'triptych with the artist at a very young age' from 1987 to a metamorphosis, but not before selecting and photographing 121 portraits from it. He freely draws the portrait photos in pencil and then examines them a second time: he draws them with grease chalk on panels measuring 23x23cm. This collection of portraits became the starting point for the 'who was me' project.

c'est ca! - 935 drawings at NEUS Nijmegen - 2023

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Since 1983, Bart Drost has been building tirelessly on an extensive and varied oeuvre of melancholy and longing. In 2021 he surprises himself by finely drawing photos with pencil. First tree leaves, later also noses, mouths, necks, penises and so on. A suitable addition in color to each drawing: handkerchief, lipstick, necklace, pants.

The basement of NEUS - a dilapidated bar that has been converted into a space where you can also discover art, fashion, design and music - appears to be a suitable place to install the more than 900 drawings.

at the office - 2021 - POPOP Nijmegen

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Bart Drost was artist in residence at POPOP in NIjmegen in 2021 and worked in the former tax office throughout October. He was there 'at the office' five days a week from 9 am to 5 pm. The story goes that at the start of his work period in the deserted office space he found thirty sheets of lined paper in a convulsive handwriting in a cardboard box. He read he notes (from a former civil servant?) with red ears. As a result of these notes, he made 54 pencil drawings.

colored - Chuch of Emmen - 2018

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

For the exhibition 'playing with Christmas' in the Grote or Pancratius Church in Emmen (2018/2019), Bart Drost drew a series of 28 drawings with graphite pen on board in response to words that had been presented to him by churchgoers. Later he colored these drawings digitally.

'stilaan voorwaarts' - MAAS Nijmegen - 2018

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

From January 1 to December 31, 2017, Bart Drost regularly makes colorful drawings with oil pastels. Sometimes he makes a single drawing every single day, sometimes several drawings in one day, and again for a while none at all. He deliberately chooses to hold the same size and material. The theme is the life of everyday, the subject he chooses are the things he experiences, loose thoughts and distant memories, dreams and fantasies.

going home - xiamen 2012

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

In april 2012 Bart Drost and his Chinese friend Xiaoming Xia made a brief trip to Xia's homeland. In the exhibition 'going home', specially created for students of the Art & Design Department of the XiamenTan Kah Kee College Drost reports of this trip, which is peppered with stories from the childhood of both himself and Xiaoming Xia. A 'going home' in two respects: the Chinese friend is looking for his home place, Drost serves the way of painting again that he serves his career has started. The result are 18 black/white paintings (220x85cm), 23 color paintings (110x85cm), 23 pen drawings (15x10cm) and 1 shortmovie.

sla-tekeningen in inkt

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

to cry - 12 testimonials - 2011

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

In 2009 Bart Drost initiated the exhibition 'visit the lord at your own risk ' in Chapel Notre Dame des Arts in Beek-Ubbergen. On that occasion he edited the booklet 'om te huilen': pictures of stations of the cross Chapel in combination with pencil drawings, Drosts translations of the same stations.

blackandwhite drawings 2010

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

charcoal drawings - vlissingen - 2000

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

From 1998 to 2005 Bart Drost had a studio space in Vlissingen. He hoped for new inspiration, far away from the provincial town Nijmegen, under the influence of the ever-moving sea. There is no clear turnaround in Drosts drawings/paintings during this period to discover. Mainly the big chalk drawings (180x160 cm) stand out.

gods gifts - blog drawings - 2000

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

From 15 april to 29 October 2000 Bart Drost organized in the great Church of Veere the exhibitions series 'God's gifts Part 1,2 and 3'. In this period as a contribution to the website of the exhibition he made 1 drawing almost daily. The more than 150 drawings are bundled in 2012.

oilpastel 1983-2017

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

softpastel 1983-2018

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

a day of - soft pastels 1990

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

A children's world, you could call it. Bart Drost made a series of pastel drawings (100x80cm) in which each time a boy and an animal figure. They are friends of each other, the boy and the animal. They seem in love with each other. In addition, for the presentation 'a day out', Drost made some animals from the drawings as sculptures, painted in wood, fresh and brightly. A giraffe, a crocodile, a hare and a pig.

postcards - 1986

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

For Bart Drost, drawing is a kind of thinking out loud. Thoughts take flight, the hand makes an image of it with fineliner and colored pencil. You could call it a by-product in his art production. These drawings were shown during the exhibition '21 young artists' at Nouvelles Images in The Hague.

a trip thrugh Spain and Portugal - 1980

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Monumental Textiles at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam. A large part of the academic year had to be spent on an 'internship'. Drost had no idea... As an internship, he went on a solo trek to Morocco by public transport. He wrote countless travel letters to his classmates and included many drawings.

Back to archive