Nature is the inspiration for all three artists in creating their drawings and paintings. A common feature is the rich use of color in an almost transparent manner. Annelies de Greef uses the white of the canvas to depict memories of a landscape in heavily diluted oil paint. Dina Vos uses pen and pencil to reveal patterns in the man-made landscape from a network of fine lines. Hanneke van der Werf uses the transparency of ink to blend colors layer upon layer into fluid worlds. Curator Astrid de Pauw brings these artists together in a light summer exhibition on view at WTC Rotterdam Art Gallery during the months of July and August.
ANNELIES DE GREEF
For Annelies de Greef, memories of specific places form the starting point for her painting, drawing, and recent graphic work. It concerns the feelings and experiences evoked by environments, spaces, and landscapes. One could call it the visualization of memories. Although the paintings are based on experiences of specific places, they can almost never be traced back literally to geographical locations. It is about the idea of a landscape or space, a structure, a way of looking. The state of mind is more important to her than the image itself. In this exhibition, Annelies presents large-format paintings from her entire oeuvre.
DINA VOS
For Dina Vos, nature has been the source of inspiration for her works since her early years as an artist. In her drawings and paintings, Dina explores the interplay between humans and nature, which surround one another. This involves viewing nature in the design of gardens and botany from various European cultures throughout the centuries. With her characteristic refined drawings, Dina explores this history, and it serves as her source of inspiration. The forms that emerge and the attention she devotes to them reveal her personal relationship with nature.
HANNEKE VAN DER WERF
Hanneke van der Werf's paintings are like fluid worlds, inspired by nature. According to Hanneke, nature lives without making plans, without thinking about meaning. Nature encourages you to think less and to “simply breathe and be” more. A tree knows when it is time to produce a new leaf, or conversely to let one fall. To feel that moment, no planning is needed, but peace. Her paintings are created in this tranquility and invite you to wander through them just as you can in nature.