the making of thomas trum’s ‘lavender’ artworks for porsche’s the art of dreams in france

explore Thomas Trum’s artworks for Porsche’s The Art of Dreams 

Lavender is the talk of the town in Hyères, France where Porsche’s The Art of Dreams enlists Thomas Trum for a series of artworks, including his acrylic-painted canvases ‘Southern Spins’, all inspired by its first-ever electric car, Macan. The Dutch artist spoke with designboom in an interview during the unveiling of his large-scale and ‘traveling’ artworks and paintings that span across the French Riviera, from a spray-painted tennis court doubling as an event space and a painted swimming pool to a bundle of purple mainsails for a sailing boat.

Thomas Trum’s large-scale artworks fall under the umbrella of The Art of Dreams, an initiative that Porsche launched in 2021 where they invite an artist or collective to create an installation based on the motif of dreams. These artworks and canvases were presented by the car manufacturer as the opening of the Design Parade Hyères festival, one of the renowned celebrations of design and creativity held at the Villa Noailles in Hyères, France, which runs between June 27th and 30th, 2024.

all photos by Thomas Lohr, courtesy of Porsche’s The Art of Dreams, unless stated otherwise

Lavender-nuanced canvases inspired by porsche macan

When Thomas Trum was young, he and his family took trips in their caravan, roaming around the countryside. The Dutch artist then saw endless fields that stretched on and wide, their expanse making him a part of them, of nature, rather than a miniature watching them from afar. One of the fields they would visit was lavender where rows of the perennial flowering plants swayed with the winds, carrying the scent that wafted to him. His parents would fish out their camera and take photos of the scenery, which later ended up in the photobooks they have at home. A full circle moment dawned on Thomas Trum when he sat down with designboom to speak about this in line with his artworks for Porsche’s The Art of Dreams.

Those lavender fields now appear in Le Provençal in Hyeres, France, formed as a series of large-scale canvases, a machine-sprayed tennis court, a painted swimming pool, and a bundle of purple-colored mainsails. Visitors to the event may step inside the court first where Thomas Trum’s Southern Spins tower over them albeit pinned to the wall. Below their feet, shades of purple over the cement floor evoke the imagery of hopscotch markings but chalked in paint. The electric Porsche Macan car is parked in the corner, a silk-like lavender cloth draping over half of its body to only reveal its front and part of its muted-lavender color. Surrounding the visitors are artworks that depict the nature of lines, spinning around, scraping the canvas, toppling over each other, their strips running almost endlessly throughout the canvases.

Thomas Trum’s Southern Spins canvases and artworks for Porsche’s The Art of Dreams in Hyères, France

Custom felt-tip pens and spray machine for the art of dreams

The sky, the sunsets, tomatoes, parasols, kits, flower fields, and grains in Provence. Thomas Trum turned to them all when he made the lavender-nuanced artworks for Porsche’s The Art of Dreams. Sometimes the imagery may weave twirling parasols seen from above or a fanning fan, other times, they recall the movement of Porsche Macan’s window wipers and the bamboo screens to shelter the interiors from the sunlight outside.

The Dutch artist created his own marker using two pieces of wood and felt, resulting in custom large felt-tip pens. He dips his equipment in paint and rakes it over the canvas to produce the perfect lines. Outside the painted tennis court, visitors descend and see the painted swimming pool. Once blue, the shade of lavender now springs up across its entirety, and its original color sometimes peeks through the purple coating, creating a hazy, psychedelic look similar to UV light.

view of the custom ‘felt tip pens’ Thomas Trum used to paint Southern Spins

Water from the sea gushes and tries to fill up the pool, which the Dutch artist painted using agricultural machinery filled with lavender-colored paint. Not so far from the swimming pool, a sailing boat appears on the horizon, perhaps the only one that stands out in the blue sea through its mainsails that Thomas Trum designed too.

One of them has a lighter pink shade, and the others have the hue of lavender, yet all of them seem to ripple using white paint, replicating the waves of the sea in another color. In our conversation with the Dutch artist below, he dives into his art practice, his relationship with lavender and colors, the agricultural machines he uses to make his paintings, his experience working for Porsche’s The Art of Dreams, and what he usually dreams about.

the Dutch artist spray painted the tennis court with an agricultural machine

Interview with Thomas Trum

designboom (DB): Hi, Thomas, it’s so nice to meet you here in Le Provençal in Hyeres, France. We roamed around the other day and saw your large-scale canvases for the Southern Spins as well as the designs you made for the pool and the boat’s mainsails. How much time did you need to bring them to life?

Thomas Trum (TT): I came here a week before the unveiling, and for the canvases, they all came already done and we just put them all up. During my week of stay, we painted the cover for the book (containing all my artworks and distributed in the event) and the mainsails. For the court (design), it took us two days of full production to finish it while the swimming pool took two hours for us to complete.

It was kind of quick because there were two components in general: the sea water and the paint. It’s kind of an offshore thing. You have the tub of paint, mix it, pour it in a spray machine, and that’s it. You couldn’t walk through it though, but then we had this film crew who would say ‘Wait, we have the perfect shot.’ But I couldn’t stop – I had to continue spray painting with my machine and hoses. If the paint had dried up midway, it wouldn’t look that way it looks now, and maybe it would have been bad for the machine, too.

Thomas Trum turns to lavender fields as one of his influences for his artworks in Porsche’s The Art of Dreams

DB: And the other day, you had a public talk with Sabine Marcelis. You mentioned that it makes you feel a bit nervous when someone asks you if they can watch you make art. Do you feel a sense of intimacy when you make art, as if it were a personal time first before you share it with the public?

TT: Maybe, yes. Well, eight years ago, I made my first run in a big artwork size. I always closed the door, shut the windows of my studio to be totally alone, to be fully concentrated. And now, after years of practice and with my work getting better and bigger, I also need to work with assistants.

There’s this big piece that we made with four people where we dragged the whole marker, drying the paint and assisting each other. So, I’ve gotten used to having people around. But if you do a commission piece, they can ask you for something specific, and you can go wrong or have some flaws. It’s a bit tricky if a customer or a client is around and something goes wrong. That feels a bit more pressure.

DB: What happens to the canvases when something goes wrong?

TT: Lots of the paintings don’t go out of the studio. I mean, if they go out, then that means they’re good. They won’t be out of the studio’s door until they’re ready. Sometimes when we bring the artworks outside, it can be windy or rainy, and it can be tricky. Just like this morning, the canvas behind you fell down on a bucket of paint, so there’s a little dent in the canvas, but I think we can fix it.

image © designboom

DB: How long will it take for you to fix it?

TT: I’m not sure, but with a heat gun and some water, you could slowly try to bring back the tension to the canvas and to its original form.

DB: While we were looking at the Southern Spins canvases, some of them can resemble parasols or bamboo screen rolls, similar to the ones typically found in Asian cities. We’re wondering if there are Eastern influences that you draw upon in your art practice?

TT:  If you take a line and then make a form, you can easily come up with a letter or form that you can read (I think it’s because we are very used to reading). The world is about letters and education, and so if a letter appears on these canvases, I think it’s ruined; you look at it in a different way. So, I try to come up with forms that are very geometrical but also a bit more universal. Maybe the Chinese or Japanese influences come through the act of making it better and always trying to perfect myself and make my artworks bigger.

I see a lot of relationships there. I have only been to India and spent six weeks in Kolkata with an artist friend of mine in an artist residency. When I came back, the first thing I did was draw, which became then the first one of this whole series. The trip inspired me, and I think everything was colorful. The use of color is so different from what we use in the Western world.

image © designboom

DB: What’s your favorite color?

TT: I feel like it’s in the direction of magenta or purple, but oil general, I don’t think I have a favorite one

DB: So, working with Porsche’s The Art of Dream for this series of artworks must be close to home for you in terms of color. We’re wondering what’s your relationship with lavender, as a flower and color? How do you see it?

TT: When I told my parents that I had a project with Porsche’s The Art of Dreams, they brought out this book full of photos from when we were young. We had this trip with the caravan and went to the lavender fields. I can’t remember where exactly, but they were far from home. If you look at these pictures, you can see these nice rows of lavender bushes that you want to dive into. I get a lot of my inspiration sitting on an airplane and looking down on aerial views, how landscape is formed, how agriculture forms new landscapes.

I think the lavender fields are some of the nicest ones. They’re like plants that are there for a long time, growing, being trimmed, then growing again. They’re a perennial crop. And I like the smell of them, too. I heard someone who came to visit the show here say that the scent of lavender reminds them of their grandmother, and I really liked that. It’s crazy how smell has this kind of power. I mean, look at here (the artist points at the tree in front of us): you see here trees that are interacting with the wind and rain, but they also interact with me, with us. For me, I think the trees always win, or the flowers. They feel monumental as you look at them, stand in front or below them.