02
Paintings
The Beginning
I started to paint in 2016. After a burnout in 2015 I had to refocus. Focus on something I really liked and could do without pressure. When I was in my twenties I had been painting, mostly with charcoal. That was when I studied at the fashion design academy “Charles Montaigne” in Amsterdam. And even though my work throughout my life had been rather creative, I had not done any real painting since I started working.
My close friends Milica Brabavic and Eugenia Gajardo, who are both painters, encouraged to use my creative skills. So, I started to paint and sketch. I really took to it when I met the Iranian painter Ali Esmaeilipour in 2017. Ali guided me in a way I just needed. There were no rules, other then letting colours flow into each other. Seeing beauty arise through mixing colours and moving around the canvas. I could express myself just the way it was coming up.
In this period I worked with Acrylics and polyresin, and added slowly some paper and silver or gold leaf into it. I did not use any brush. Just some chopsticks to make lines when needed. It was a beautiful way of finding a true expression of my inner colours reflected in boldness and tenderness. A way of re-connecting with my rather colourful nature. These initial paintings resulted in the series : the Beginning.
Working with Textures
In 2019 I introduced texture into my work. This was a revelation in a different way. I love to work with my hands. They have an ease to express themselves without me being involved too much. Molding paper and dipping it into the paint and letting it appear on the canvas became a meditative process, which resulted each time into something I did not plan. It just appeared and I loved that process.
My love for flowers was apparent in the process, as they appeared each time. And with flowers, leaves, found in nature, were added. I live in a place which is surrounded by nature. And I like to make walks. During these walks I gather many different leaves as they have such an intricate beauty, and they totally suit my work. In different ways. Either very obvious in the “Nature’s Contrast Series” or as part of the texture in “Nature’s Inspiration”. Being inspired by Nature in different ways became my clear focus.
Realising how important nature is for all of us, I created the series “Say No to Plastic”. We all are using too much plastic and this plastic is destroying our natural environment. Showing that in paintings makes it last as an image, which we eventually like to see changed. Becoming aware of this makes us want to change for the better.
