werner bronkhorst (@werner_bronkhorst)

I’m addicted to painting. That’s why I named this collection ‘High’. And what better artwork title to start with than ‘Come Down’ ? After paragliding in Cape Town earlier this year, I thought it was about time I translate all my inspiration into a painting. In this artwork I used 6 different blues…

Many people ask where I get my inspiration from and my answer is quite simple- the world out there constantly inspires me. I’ve had many overnight flights this year and every time I see the sun setting on the horizon, framed by the oval shape of an airplane window, I get chills. I find it rather…

Dear Austria! 🇦🇹 My High exhibition just got Higher because of @Red Bull and House Of Arts here at Hangar 7 in Salzburg. I will be at my show opening on Saturday 17 October to say hello and give lots of hugs. Please come by! I can’t wait to see you there 🥹

I find it funny that the shape of this artwork resembles that of both an airplane window and a pill. Travel is like a drug. When you travel, you gain an open mind and you see things you’ve never seen. I titled this artwork ‘Himmelblau’. In German, that’s a specific shade of blue- heavenly blue…

CARRY ON TRAVEL ESSENTIALS 
 ✈️ HIGH Hoodie 🌐 Airlines Passport Wallet
🎈 Come Up For Air Silk Scarf
☁️ Cloud Luggage Tag ➤ Paper Plane Bag Charm

The HIGH merch capsule has been thoroughly inspected and cleared for travel. 

Dropping Sunday 11 October 7pm CEST.

Traditionally Ultramarine Blue was used in religious and royal high art because of how difficult and expensive it was to mine and crush lapis lazuli for blue oil paint. With the advent of synthetic paint pigments in the 19th century, this colour became far more affordable to create and artists…

‘Early Birdie’ was one of the last artworks I made as part of my ‘HIGH’ collection. I love making golf paintings and where I live in Bondi, there is a golf course that overlooks the ocean with seaplanes flying overhead from Rose Bay all the time. It’s that exact scene I wanted to capture here. The…

Sometimes half an idea is a good enough excuse to start a new painting. I knew I wanted to try something new- two different colours meeting on one a single stroke. I also knew I wanted to paint a kitesurfing scene. The surfer himself is on the deep blue water and the kite is in the open air. He is…

Numbers play a big role in most of my artworks and this ons is no exception. Nine tones of blue were placed on a canvas in random blobs and spread in a variety of directions to form a cloudy sky full of movement. This acted as the perfect backdrop for the nine Porsche 911’s I painted with fine…

I’m giving away a custom made mini print of your favourite hot air balloon in this artwork. 🎈 All you have to do is guess how long you reckon it took me (in hours and minutes) to paint the entire ‘Come Up For Air’ artwork which features 25 of these mini hot air balloons on a multicoloured canvas…

I often get asked whether I plan artworks in advance or let the creativity flow. I would say it’s a fine balance of letting the process flow. My initial ambition was to create a twelve piece series of plane windows but these required far more time than I had available. Instead, I stuck to three…

I had this idea stuck in my head and my sketchbook for quite some time. Finally it made its way onto a canvas. Working on a semi-circular canvas is by far the most audacious project in this collection but it worked so well to get the idea across of a peaceful sunset. Two hang gliders drift…

An artist’s worst nightmare would be ‘Living in Grey’ and yet monochrome colour schemes are my favourite. Grey feels melancholic and ambiguous. The kind of colour that will always dominate a scene despite not asking for much attention. It’s fascinating in that it is somewhere between black and…

Initially I had twelve of these in mind but soon I realised that there simply wasn’t enough time to complete a collection. My goal was to display a single plane flying through various clouds, skies and colours to tell a story of how I can’t stop staring out the windows on flights. There’s…

A day in motion, packed accordingly with @RIMOWA My days rarely stay in one place. From an early swim, to the studio, to wherever I’m heading next. I’ve been using the latest pieces from the new #RIMOWANeverStill Collection as part of that everyday rhythm. The backpack has become the place for…

The second best artwork in the collection The beauty of having paint left over from other artworks in this collection is that I can bundle them onto a fresh canvas, sweep the colours into one another and see what happens. The different shades of blues that were once so distinct all of a sudden…

The title ‘High Horses’ carries a playful double meaning. It refers literally to the horses suspended above their obstacles, while borrowing from the expression “on your high horse,” introducing a subtle sense of humour and confidence. At the time I painted this artwork, I knew I was going to…

‘Ride Like The Wind’ is a tribute to the car that started my love and passion for Porsches. Cars are supposed to get us from point A to B but some cars make that journey a true experience and what better model to choose than a Porsche 356 with an open canopy hooked to an Airstream trailer? The mix…

The last in a series of 4 elongated canvases that I took with me on recent flights. Here I painted a tiny pilot and his hang glider drifting over a buttery cream-white stroke of colour. Artworks like this are really just small studies to play around with colour, concepts and compositions for…

‘Floating’ is another small study I took with me on my recent travels abroad. This time to Chile when I revealed Martin Garrix and Ed Sheeran’s new album cover to them in their hotel in Santiago. I had a few hours to wander around the city which I was dying to do but I also needed to finish this…

‘Spinning’ is just a small study I made to practice painting helicopters. I love flying in general but helicopters bring a different level of excitement to me. We recently flew over the city and suburbs of Munich piloted by our friend and before that Charli took me on a scenic helicopter ride…

This is another artwork that was made in a rather strange location- over the Indian Ocean in an airplane. During my stay in Germany, I made a few artworks that were small enough to transport easily in my suitcase so I could paint whenever I had a spare moment. These moments mostly came on the…

This is a special little piece that I took with me to Germany in April while I was doing a residency at Sonderwunsh in Zuffenhausen. During the day I would work on my project with Porsche and afterwards I would paint until midnight to finish a variety of smaller canvases that are studies for much…

‘Come Up for Air’ Majestic in size, colourful by design and calm in nature, hot air balloons fascinate me each time I see them drift peacefully over open landscapes. Sunrises tend to be the best times to take flight which is why this artwork features a gradient of pastel colours spread in gentle…

‘Head In The Clouds’ My friends and family seem to say that my head is in the clouds often. That’s the truth, sometimes but for good reason. I love having my head in the clouds. Literally and figuratively. Disconnecting from the world, taking time to introspect or think about the future. This…

‘Wing It’ features a tiny blue biplane that acted as the study for ‘Head In The Clouds’ which you can see in an earlier post. Small studies like this help me prepare compositions and aid in finalising background colours for the bigger, far more risky artworks. These tiny studies also keep me on…