Splendid Spotlight: Artist Ruud Van Empel

Artist Ruud Van Empel captures the beauty of innocence in photo montage.

Girl in pearls by Ruud Van Empel

“Art has the potential to capture our imagination, communicate what we believe, express our emotions as well as beautify a space.  It’s one of the most personal ways to put your stamp on a home.”

Elle

I love to learn about artist and understand how they create.  Today, I’d like to introduce you to the highly acclaimed work of artist Ruud Van Empel.  His breath taking photo montages capture the beauty of innocence like no one else.

Artist Ruud Van Empel was born in the Netherlands in 1958.  He trained as a graphic artist and worked in video production and staged photography early in his career.  Later Rudd Van Empel worked as an artistic director of various television and film productions.  For the past two decades Van Empel has transformed his art form to digital collage or photomontage.

This series, World and Dawn, are found in his Photoworks book of 2009.  Rudd uses nature and children as his primary subjects to find innocence and beauty in these photographic works.  A work of his was included in a recent project.  I was so fascinated by his photo collage work I wanted to share him with you as well as the remarkable beauty of his subjects.

The series World and Dawn

Here’s what Rudd Van Empel does.  He photographs four or five professional models in his studio and takes many detailed photographs of leaves, flowers, plants and animals. The models pictures are mixed with these images using a Photoshop program and he layers clothes photographed separately on a tailor’s dummy. This allows him to create new images of mainly children, in black and white, then he sets them in his created paradise environment.  The final images were created through an involved process.

He calls his work digital collage or photomontage.  Van Empel’s working method is a complex one with fantasy results.

Pretty amazing.  The images are so striking they will capture your attention and imagination.  They evoke an alien or not of this world feeling.

Ruud Van Empel’s work can be found in museum collections throughout the world.

Innocence and nature are a lovely combination.

I like, I like – How about you? What do you think?

Hope you’ve enjoyed The Art of Ruud Van Empel.

Until next time …