Some didn't know the painter was sizing them up quickly
and capturing their likeness for a massive portrait.
Others posed a few minutes at a time to be depicted on a
canvas as wide as a theater curtain and stretching 9
feet high.
The artist, Wouter Verrips, was a stranger from
overseas who spent about a week in Jacksonville as part
of a self-propelled American tour. While in town, he
painted several locals one night.
Verrips, 46, is from Amsterdam but runs a summer art
school in France. He and Jacksonville resident Jennifer
Chase have a mutual friend in France, who urged Verrips
to visit Chase in Jacksonville.
So he did. Verrips came to Jacksonville last week and
met Chase and her friend, Rick O'Shea. Since Oct. 29,
Verrips has stopped in Chicago, Vancouver in British
Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California and other
cities and states. Along the way, he has sketched
landscapes in scrapbooks.
When he arrived in Jacksonville, he wanted something
bigger to show off his artistry.
Driven by artistic inspiration, Verrips, Chase and
O'Shea rolled with the idea of having a party at
O'Shea's Spring Park home and having Verrips paint the
action. A 37-foot-long cotton-acrylic fabric was strung
along an open tee-pee-like structure in O'Shea's back
yard.
"It was pretty impromptu," O'Shea said.
Verrips mixed pigment with acrylic glue and sketched
scenes of people standing, sitting and conversing during
a Friday night party. There's an image of Chase, right
leg crossed over left, strumming her guitar. Above Chase,
Verrips portrayed Mark Windischman hanging upside-down
by his knees, which are hooked around one of the thick
ropes looping overhead.
Verrips said his goal in painting portraits is to
show the energy of people and events.
"I'm hoping to come back to Jacksonville and do
something in a more public place," Verrips said.
Staff writer Alliniece T. Andino can be reached
at (904) 359-4546 or via e-mail at aandino
jacksonville.com.
