This is a tiny speck in cyberspace created by
Christopher van der Craats.

This site represents my professional work, personal interests and my creative endeavours, which are all mostly different shades of the same thing.

I hold the view that creativity is fundamentally how individuals interact with the world. Essentially we are each of us isolated and the world is something we look upon from the perspective of ourselves. We need to negotiate the external world, resolve any dissonance, and redefine ourselves in relation to it. Art plays a big role of this process and through it we develop an empathy with external reality. Of course the means by which all this plays out encomasses different modes and can be varied. This website gathers together my own various efforts in regards to this.

September 2022
I was finally able to deliver a painting I did the Fish Creek Post Office. This is a painting I did a few years ago as a copy of a style I used to do even more years ago.

Fish Creek Post Office
[Click on image to open and close.]

March 2022
After the lost years of the Covid virus I return to adding information to this web site.

I have been working on the landscapes of the old gold diggings around Castlemain. I have adopted the format of the double square which was used by Vincent van Gogh in his last days at Auvers-sur-Oise. This format is perfect for this project.

A traumatised landscape

March 2020
I have printed a book of comics from the 1980's, The Henry Maltravers Old Boys Annual. If you are curious about this book please email me.

Some books

Henry Maltravers Old Boys Annual
[Click on the above for enlargement]

February 2020
Having difficulties in life. But it is always thus. I stumble on.
Below is a painting on paper that refers to the starry starry night as a motif in Art. The psychological landscape. (Click on it to enlarge.)

A starry night

I have been making string puppets. Here are three hanging about the house.(Click on the photo to enlarge.) These are more to keep my mind/hands active than anything else.

Hanging puppets

Paintings & Illustration
Paintings
Online Education
Punch & Judy
Photography
large image