I’m Rinze van Brug, a full-time painter based in Brooklyn, New York.

I’ve been making art in one form or another for most of my life. I got into graffiti as a kid after seeing Beat Street and Wild Style, and I fell in love with the idea that you could make something out of nothing, together with other people, out in the open. That eventually led me to art school, photography, design, and a long career in advertising. I loved that world, especially the people and the community, but somewhere along the way I realized I wanted to make something that was entirely my own.

These days, I mostly paint in oils, often starting with nothing more than a memory, a feeling, or a question that interests me. I’ve been a photographer for a long time, but now I probably work from fantasy and memory 80% of the time. I love painting the moment I saw but was too late to photograph.

I live a pretty simple life. I get coffee with friends, love my kids and wife, ride my road bike in Prospect Park, and pay attention to the people around me. I’m fascinated by the little things that happen between people, the things that are easy to miss but somehow say everything. A couple in a café, a woman and a cat, a look between two people who may or may not know what the other is thinking. I find those things endlessly interesting.

My Dutch roots shape how I see the world. I love Vermeer and Rembrandt, especially how Rembrandt highlights the people he finds interesting. I’m also completely obsessed with fashion, so color, style, and how people present themselves are always in my head when I paint. I love oil paint because nothing really beats it when it comes to color. Most of the time, I work wet-on-wet and try to get as much done as I can in a single day.

After so many years working commercially, I’ve become much less interested in making art for a particular audience or figuring out what people will buy. I just paint what I like. Of course, I love it when people connect with my work, but I don’t want to start with that in mind. The more personal and honest you are, the more likely someone is to recognize something of themselves in what you make.

I’m still figuring that out myself. After all these years, I’m learning that the more I let go, the better the work gets. And I think that’s what keeps me painting.