Marcel van Luit | Messages of Hope, Love & Trust | An Exclusive Interview

An Exclusive Interview With
Marcel van Luit
By Ariel SU

Messages of Hope, Love & Trust

Dutch photographer and artist Marcel van Luit creates a magnificent magical world.
In his art, the world of imagination comes to life through playing with tones, darkness, and light. Wild animals, nature, and magical scenes became his artistic signature.
It is a great pleasure to present an exclusive interview with such a fascinating artist!

“Always keep Dreaming; No dream is too big to Achieve!“
– Marcel van Luit

Marcel van Luit, best known for visualizing dreamy scenarios, is a contemporary artist from the Netherlands. Marcel plays with tones, darkness, and light to create exciting new worlds. His works have been shown at leading art galleries from Paris to Los Angeles, Mexico City, Shanghai, and Art Basel Miami, to name
a few.
Marcel creates commissioned art pieces for clients from all over the globe, including celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Lionel Richie – and uses his work to convey life lessons to his sons. His messages are primarily about hope, trust, and love. Marcel would like to show that when you imagine, anything is possible. In his creative process, he looks through the eyes of a child. With wonder and an unlimited amount of fantasy, Marcel creates worlds he would like to escape to himself when life gets dark sometimes. In doing so, he aims to touch people with the emotions and comfort that his work brings.

Art Market Magazine: Marcel, it’s a pleasure to have this interview. We discovered your art through your successful Instagram profile and were overwhelmed by the power of fantasy in your art. Your art is fascinating from both the philosophical aspect and the visually beautiful high technique. You are an internationally acclaimed artist, drawn to the art field several years ago. Where did the passion for art come from? Did you grow up in an artistic environment?

Marcel van Luit: Thank you, it’s my pleasure! No, I didn’t grow up in an artistic environment. To be honest,
I wasn’t surrounded by art at all when I was young and only cared about playing outside in nature. I think that’s where my love for nature and animals started. However, I did love to draw when I was a kid. I was drawing from images for hours and hours. It was my way to relax, and when I look back, it was my first form of creative expression. But at the time, I had no clue about art and had never set foot in a museum or art gallery.

Art Market Magazine: Tell us about the circumstances that led you to start creating your absolutely magnificent art.

Marcel van Luit: It’s been a crazy but beautiful journey to where I am today. A few months after my oldest son (Otis, now nine years old) was born, I was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome (Guillain-Barre syndrome is a rare disorder in which your body’s immune system attacks your nerves).
After experiencing complete paralysis and being in the hospital for months, I was transferred to a rehabilitation facility where I took up photography and editing as a form of physiotherapy and mental escapism. As I couldn’t walk and go out on adventures with my son at the time, I started to create digital adventures for us. My work has evolved a lot since then, but it definitely was the beginning of finding my true passion. Little did I know about what was coming the years after, haha.

Art Market Magazine: What is the philosophical idea behind your art? Is it also being made to raise awareness of the beauty of nature and wildlife?

Marcel van Luit: Absolutely. My art is a tribute to wildlife and nature. I am so fascinated by animals and in awe of their beauty. I want to show our surroundings and animals as treasures we need to take good care of. It’s my way of raising awareness of nature and animals by showing their beauty.

Art Market Magazine: Which artists would you say have influenced your artistic style?

Marcel van Luit: I would say, Salvador Dali. I’m so inspired by his work. Salvador Dali captured his imagination in every artwork. My art is an expression of my imagination and my dreams as well. I love that his work has no boundaries because it’s Surrealism. So many people call my work Modern Surrealism, and I think it is precisely what it is.

Art Market Magazine: Let’s talk about the technique behind your art. Where does the idea for the artwork come from? Which apps do you use? Do you prepare sketches before starting the entire process? Can you describe the workflow from the point of the idea to the final outcome?

Marcel van Luit: I never work with sketches; I just start. In my opinion, my best works began with no plan at all and just a single subject as a particular animal, a specific tree, or even a piece of porcelain I came across. Inspiration is everywhere. Most of the time, it’s just a feeling or emotion I want to work towards. When I’m creating, I feel like I’m in a sort of trance, I put on my music, and my head keeps overflowing with ideas. I also do private commissions where more boundaries are set by clients who like to see specific elements, models, or symbolism, and that feels like a small plan for me to start with.
But also with commissions, I have never done a sketch before, and I need my creative freedom to get my inspiration flowing, and I let it just come to me. I work with a lot of different software programs, and I do a lot of digital drawing.

Art Market Magazine: For how long do you work on each artwork?

Marcel van Luit: It really depends, some of my art pieces I finish in two days, but I also have pieces I work on for weeks. I work on some of the works of art non-stop when I’m in a perfect flow. But there are also pieces I work on, put aside for a while, and then continue later.

Art Market Magazine: You usually create large-scale limited print editions. Do you feel it’s necessary to strengthen the artwork by its large-scale printing, or is it for bringing more awareness to details?

Marcel van Luit: I love how large-scale art pieces significantly impact the viewer. And yes, it’s also for bringing more attention to all details.
I love creating works of art that you can look at every day and find more and more details and elements you didn’t notice before. So in many of my pieces, I leave these hidden gems for the viewers to discover. So, for example, I use a lot of symbolism in my work that sometimes is not even noticed when you take a quick look at my work. But when you look at it longer, with more profound attention, you will find them, and the story unfolds to you.

Art Market Magazine: Tell us about the latest exhibitions. You had several solo exhibitions in Mexico, Brazil, and the latest show in London took place in Oxford street in collaboration with W1curates. What was the reaction to your work? What kind of reaction do you try to evolve in the viewer’s eye?

Marcel van Luit: I’ve had excellent solo exhibitions in many countries. Last year was great for me in Mexico, where we did a lot of shows. Also, the US is an important market for me, and I have done some great shows there as well in the last couple of months. When my work was on display in the center of London, in Oxford Street, I went there with my wife simply to sit on a bench in the street and enjoyed watching the reactions of people passing by.
So many people rushed through the street and suddenly stopped to take a breath in front of the screens. We saw couples holding each other looking at the art and children whose eyes lit up when they saw the animals in my work. It was a great experience to watch this anonymously from a distance. In my book, I wrote that there is always beauty in life and that beauty can be easily found in connections between people, nature, and animals. I want to show that through my work because I think it’s comforting to know that, even when everything falls apart, there will always be love, hope, and trust as long as you can dream and imagine. That’s really what it is for me. I’m a happy man if my work can do that to just one person.

Art Market Magazine: On your Instagram, we can see many animation interpretations of your work. Do you create these great video animations by yourself? Do you also sell NFT?

Marcel van Luit: I started to create an animated version of my work a while ago, and I have my team of experts to help me with this. I started to just create these for myself because when I work on an art piece, I always see it come to life in my head, and I hear music with it. So, I wanted to show that but needed movement and music with it to do so. So, these animations are the complete experience of my art. It’s a direct look into my mind, to my own interpretation of my artwork. I sell some of them as NFTs, which is a cool way to market these types of animations. But, I also get a lot of questions from my clients who want to display my animations on their walls, just like the physical art pieces. So I am working on a very cool new product for this, which will be hopefully released later this year.

Art Market Magazine: What are the future projects? Are there any scheduled exhibitions or art fairs awaiting us?

Marcel van Luit: I am working on some great private commissions and many amazing projects. I enjoy and appreciate the opportunities I have to work with musicians and other artists to create all kinds of creative concepts and projects. I do art direction and try to push myself to reinvent myself repeatedly.
For this year, I have exhibitions planned in Mexico, London, and the USA; please keep an eye on my Instagram account for exact dates and more info on this.

Art Market Magazine: What would be your advice to the young digital artist trying to make his way in the art market world?

Marcel van Luit: Stay close to yourself! Find your own signature style and stick to it, so people start recognizing your work. Don’t get distracted by what other people do, be unique and refreshing, and don’t try to do the same as others. And always keep dreaming; no dream is too big to achieve!

Read the full article in Art Market Magazine Issue #76