‘A true artist cannot help but leave a piece of their soul in the canvas.’ Medium
I’ve always been struck by this thing about paintings, especially the artistry of the old masters. I studied painting and drawing for four years at the ‘Drawing Studio Three of a Kind’ in Amsterdam and graduated in 1999. Thereafter, I’d various successful art exhibitions, and this is how my book began. I received countless intensely emotional reactions to my art from people in all walks of life, and I began to realize how much people feel connected to it. They recognized themselves in my work, and somehow felt comforted, supported by looking at them. The paintings mirrored their feelings and helped them sort out and handle these, even when they went through a completely different process; my art turned out to be universal. I was amazed and deeply humbled, and even more inclined to keep on painting.
A few years later I craved a deepening of my technique, so I took a two-year schooling of ‘Traditional Painting’ at the ‘Liberal Academy of the Arts’ in Amsterdam. Here I was educated on painting techniques of the old Dutch Masters of the 17th century. Modern painters directly work up their painting with full color, the palette containing every pigment present in the finished work, and usually with lots of experimentation. The old masters on the other hand worked very sparingly with pigments as they were extremely costly, and used instead complex techniques such as underpainting, or dead-coloring, painting a monochrome version that fixes the composition, gives volume to the forms and distributes darks and lights to create illumination, and glazing, applying a transparent layer of color pigment over the dried underpainting. The different layers of paint are only optically mixed, creating a unique translucent, stained-glass effect not obtainable by direct mixture.
‘When language was not transcendental enough to complete the meaning of a revelation, symbols were relied upon for heavenly teaching, and familiar images, chosen from the known, were made to mirror the unknown truth.’ Hunt
All my art works are oil paint on canvas, the images are in the tradition of magical realism with lots of symbolism. It’s a direction in art which expresses a primarily realistic view of the real world while also revealing magical, supernatural or spiritual elements, an attempt is made to connect this reality to a higher reality, so phantasmagoric images or dream effects occur. The imagery originates from deep, intense feelings that want, need to be portrayed. Everything in the paintings is symbolic; the use of color, the composition, landscapes, either natural or mystical, the postures and hand postures of the figures, facial expressions, the number of figures and the mutual relationships to each other, other objects, clothing or nakedness. Everything connects the viewer with the wondrous world of Spirit.
I added an explanation of the symbolism, if I thought it exposed another layer of truth. Symbolism plays a big role in my life, and I’ve discovered that you can thus display great truths in a gentler, yet direct way. It’s a wonderful method to teach one something at a deeper level. A symbol in my book is a representation of something mysterious, and the best possible expression for something otherwise unknown to us, or beyond our comprehension. Something whose meaning is crystal clear, like the red stop sign bearing the word STOP, isn’t a symbol. An image is only a symbol when we find the image enthralling, captivating and evocative, even though we’re at a loss to say what its unexpressed meaning is. But we feel the importance behind it, we feel the truth even though it’s still veiled, and we understand there’s knowledge to be gained here.
'God comes to us in theater in the way we communicate with each other, whether it be a symphony orchestra, or a wonderful ballet, or a beautiful painting, or a play. It's a way of expressing our humanity.' Julie Harris
When sorting out my work for a large art exhibition which would show several pieces, I felt that my paintings’ content was strongly linked. When hung together, an immediate resonance sounded between them; together they’re quite different than when seen individually or in small groups. Together they’re a symphony, together you discover the destination of my paintings; they tell my life story in pictures, color, emotion and symbolism.
This unearthing birthed the idea to write down my story alongside the paintings. As it turned out, the paintings proved to be chronologically correct, although they weren’t painted in that order. I purely lived through my feelings at the time I painted them, but nevertheless they display my complete story in all its heavenly and harrowing aspects.
And even beyond that; my paintings are universal, I’m telling the story of humanity at large.
P.S. ALL IMAGES ON THIS SITE ARE PHOTOGRAPHS OF OIL PAINTINGS BY MY HAND
AND ARE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT ©
that means you may not copy them, reproduce them, or sell them in any way
Add comment
Comments
Wow!! You are a really talented paintress!! Amazing work!! I admire you for all your talents!!
I do so love symbolism and am very curious to see your work and discover the symbols in them! The paintings shown here are fantastic! Keep up the good work! This world needs some beautifcation..
Love your paintings, great colors, cool style and symbolic on top of that. Makes me curious about your book. If it’s anything like your art I’d love to read it for sure!