March 5, 2023Comments are off for this post.

Healing Forest

We lie on our backs on a patch of grass among tall trees and look up. All sorts of things are flying through the air. Thick bumblebees and dragonflies, swooping swallows, dandelion fluff, an airplane on its way to a distant destination, gossamer silver threads of a spider, patches of clouds, butterflies chasing each other, a buzzard. Most you only see, some you also hear.

The swaying treetops create an ever-changing light on the ground. The shadow play is almost hallucinatory. Everywhere rustles and everything seems to be moving. With a little imagination, a gnome suddenly shuffles out from behind a tree stump, or a nimble forest elf dances on a branch.

We have been lying here for half an hour now, and the beneficial effect such an environment has on body and mind is already becoming noticeable.

Shinrin-Yoku

Japanese have known this for a long time, and have a name for it: Shinrin-Yoku. The word shinrin means forest, and the word yoku stands for absorbing the atmosphere through your senses. We call it in proper Dutch "bosbaden" forest bathing. For years it has been the ultimate 'secret' in Japan to - now scientifically proven - living a healthier, calmer and happier life.
Through Shinrin-Yoku you reconnect with nature in many ways. Consciously spending time in nature can lower your blood pressure, relieve stress and strengthen your immune system. Also, "forest bathing" can boost your energy, creativity and concentration.

Have you ever taken a forest bath?

Healing Forest - The canopy of a Danish forest, transformed in multiple layers
Healing Forest - The canopy of a Danish forest

Text: Anuscka. Artwork: me

Anuscka wrote the original text in July 2018, just before we moved permanently from the Netherlands to Denmark. She had rather severe lower back pain at the time, but experienced great benefit from meditation in the forest.

Anuscka's original blogpost

General info on this artwork

This is a digital artwork, printed with high-quality ink on museum-quality cotton paper (Hahnemühle Photo Rag® 308gsm). The work comes in a limited edition of 10, signed and with a certificate of authenticity.

For these artworks, I start with one or more photographs made by myself. I edit it in multiple process runs and in several layers by color manipulation and adding and editing multiple digital photographic effects. I do that until a surrealistic atmosphere is created that touches me and tells the story I want to tell.

The photograph(s) I begin with has/have an impressionistic, surrealistic or abstract realist style, which is the basis for all my work.

Prints are available, ask for a quote or contact me through a message. Prints are also available in my Saatchi Art portfolio at the artwork page

December 25, 2021Comments are off for this post.

Frozen Sunrise

My wife Anuscka and I do not celebrate Christmas.
So my wish for all of you is somewhat different from the traditional Christmas greeting:

I wish you silent days, with a light in your heart for the earth, for nature and for all the needy people.

Whatever you celebrate today, make it a beautiful, colorful day, and take a moment to think and care about all that is vulnerable and needy on this earth.

(text continues below the image)

Frozen Sunrise - The sun rises over e snowy forest. Whatever you celebrate today, make it a beautiful, colorful day, and take a moment to think and care about all who/what are/is vulnerable and needy on this earth. - Impressionistic digital art by Jacob Berghoef
Frozen Sunrise

'Frozen Sunrise' is a new digital artwork in my collection 'Secret Places'.

Prints are available, ask for a quote or contact me through a message.

Through my artworks I ask you to reflect for a moment on the nature around you, on the beautiful feeling that nature can evoke, on what we lose when we continue on the road of 'never enough'.

November 15, 2021Comments are off for this post.

Silent Light

I stand still and watch,
as the pale light of dawn
silently dispels the night.

I must admit that I have enjoyed converting a small selection of my forest photographs into intensely dark black and white artworks. They were of course meant to express my concern about the climate and the lack of climate action.

But they have also become a special way for me to look at my earlier work.
I hope you also enjoyed how the sparse light gave these artworks an intimate atmosphere.

Herewith the last one in this triptych. Early in the morning the light penetrates into the darkest corners of the world. After every night, a new day arrives…

'Silent Light' is a new artwork in my collection 'Secret Places'. It is inspired by the recent fruitless attempts by world leaders to arrive at decisive measures and concrete actions to combat the climate crisis.

(Text continues below the image)

Silent Light - Early in the morning the light penetrates into the darkest corners of the forest. After every night, a new day arrives… - Impressionistic fine art forestscape photography by Jacob Berghoef
Silent Light

Prints are available in my Saatchi Art portfolio at the artwork page, ask for a quote or contact me through a message.

Through my artworks I ask you to reflect for a moment on the nature around you, on the beautiful feeling that nature can evoke, on what we lose when we continue on the road of 'never enough'.

November 2, 2021Comments are off for this post.

Feathers Of Light

Evening arrives, turning the trees into feathers of light.

An autumn walk through the beautiful forest Dover Plantation, near the town of Hurup Thy in North Jutland, Denmark.

'Feathers Of Light' is a new artwork in my collection 'Secret Places'.

Feathers Of Light - Evening arrives, turning the trees into Feathers of Light. - Impressionistic fine art forestscape photography by Jacob Berghoef
Feathers Of Light

Prints are available in my Saatchi Art portfolio at the artwork page, ask for a quote or contact me through a message.

Through my artworks I ask you to reflect for a moment on the nature around you, on the beautiful feeling that nature can evoke, on what we lose when we continue on the road of 'never enough'.

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