Beautiful art by Dutch artist Margo van Erkelens (01)

A few pieces caught my eye this week, like these beautiful paintings from Dutch artist Margo van Erkelens. While I was surfing today on Facebook I came 'accidentally' across her profile page. Very interesting artwork! Love the atmosphere as well as her refined coloruse. Just take a look below for inspiration. I wrote also another blog about this inspiring lady BLOG 02.

More about the artist:

This is what Margo writes about herself: 'I spent my youth in Goedereede: a small town close to the coast. A major source of inspiration for my landscapes (of dunes) and seascapes. The scents, memories, colours of the seasons, briny and sweet…; it forms the source for my land- and/or seascapes. In my other figurative or abstract work, these memories do not play such a role, but rather my great love for colour. 

I grew up with love for colour and atmosphere. The warmth of a colour, the tones and shades and combinations between each other ravish me and give me the drive each day to shape my creativity. Each time my work is very different in the end. The main challenge is to leave out the most recognisable. Only having the pure experience of shape and colour to remain is what I try to achieve, allowing imagination and fantasy to have no bounds. This puts more importance on ‘feeling’ rather than ‘recognizing’. 

This makes a painting a story without words; an invitation to travel through landscapes; a reminder to footsteps; fantasising about an image; to imagine and to feel. I am not trying to control my work: the process can take its course! I combine the numerous layers of paint with everything that is available: sand, soil, fabric, pigments, gypsum, etc.

The paint is scraped away to allow other layers to surface. My best paintings come into existence through mistakes underneath the top layer. The ‘accidents’ that originate from previous layers are used gratefully by me and help me to let go of a clearly defined image. To let it ‘happen’ rather than to ‘steer’. This remains a challenge until the end, because when is a canvas ‘finished’? Leonardo da Vinci put it very aptly with his famous quote: “Art is never finished; only abandoned!” '

Margo van Erkelens (1969)

Thank you for reading this blogpost.

Source: Margo van Erkelens

These photos have been placed with permission of the artist.