About In Uncertainty Collection
The collection titled In Uncertainty is a new collection by the artist Marianne Hendriks. The collection has been in preparation over a period of six years, where the artists has specialised in the techniques of both the Dutch 17th Masters and Italian 14th century masters. During the studies the artist created still lives Collection titled Domesticus Collection, exploring painting techniques and reflecting in times of lockdown. The collection ‘In Uncertainty’ is also a reflection on yet again uncertain times. The collection is also a reflection of the artist on her own body of work. The artist wants to create in a explorative manor and uncertain, where work is not pre-calculated nor absolute cohesive to keep a sense of freedom at this moment in time to create new directions and allowing her voice to evolve.
The art work is with the main focus on representing nature. The artist portrays plant and emphasizes elements of plants and their appearances. Marianne’s art work is with poetic intention and melancholy, where the subjects have a theatrical appearance and feel like a part of a performance that is perhaps even taking place without us as human spectators are not even aware of. The artist is also very aware of colour and uses colours in a traditional and non traditional manor. The colour mode that the artist uses has an other worldy aspect to it and the historical reference of the colour mode is of cinematic reference called ‘technicolour’.
The technique and materials are based on Dutch 17th master Johannes Vermeer and Italian masters Michael Angelo, Davinci and Sandro Botticelli. The art work is created on Belgian flax linen canvas. The oil technique used is the glazing technique, created by application of over a process of twenty thin layers of oil paint, created in the sfumato method.
About The Unknown Collection
The collection ‘All that is unknown’ is derived from a poem the artist has written. The poem is written towards nature and her beloved who is either missed or grieved. The collection explores love and romance and Marianne suggests that to be an artist, one can not avoid being a romantic. The collection is inspired by sonnets and poems and letters by artists and writers. Marianne’s work is strongly referring to the letters of V.v.Gogh, writing to his brother Theo, describing how he fell in love with nature and how he felt deeply connected. In one of the many letters he describes a very moving moment, where a man has found himself. V.v.Gogh who struggled with many things in his life amongst was a struggle to find a sense of belonging, acceptance, meaning and love, he found this in nature. The poem ‘Gingo Biloba’ by Goethe has a great influence in the work, the poem the artists read as a child. The poem describes love as a mythical thing that nature is represented as part of the love language.
At the time whilst developing the collection Marianne was participating in the RCA summer course, to challenge ideas, several of the students were giving captivating performances in the written word. Marianne explored her writing. The love letter of Marianne explores what it feels like to be in love and intertwines the experience of love with nature and freedom. And suggesting that love and romance is a great capacity in itself to have. Marianne describes and explores what love can be in its many forms, primal and mysterious at the same time, expanding the mind. The infatuation, feeling foolish, obsessively strong, admiration and interest for some one. Where romance is something that also two people have to believe in for it to be able to exist and when given it, it could still pass you by unnoticed. Marianne explores the complexity of love and depicts it in the form of writing and painting and nature. The poems wander through landscapes as part of the landscape, describing nature as part of love, empathy and belonging. The writing of the poems are not chronicle and are separated in the landscape and separated in time, indicating that the meaning of her poems and love exist outside the timeline we live in.
About Domesticus Collection
The Domesticus collection is a series of domestic still life scenes based on daily life, created during lockdown. The paintings are in a dream-like state. The work has an appearance of nativity and there is the acceptance of the artist that the painting exists outside the realm of reality and not attempting to rival reality. There is also an element of the unresolved and unfinished, giving a sense of unease. The paintings are painted in traditional oil painting technique of glazing in layers up to twenty six layers. The artist uses the techniques to her own aesthetic and has a contemporary approach with influences of today’s mass pop culture and cartoons. The colours are based on colour theories of the renaissance called ‘technicolour’, a super natural colour. The artists also makes use of the technique called ‘Couleur rompue’, translated from french, broken colour, this technique is to place colours next to each other and not mixing them, allowing for extra contrast in the painting.
Marianne applies the techniques and esthetic language of the Dutch Masters of the Golden age. The technique is a long process of painting thin glazes of oil paint with sixteen up to thirty six glazes. Each stage the painting moves forward and gets rebalanced, the artist is hereby having to make many choices, giving the artworks incredible depth and a unique appearance. Marianne refers to the techniques and themes and compositions of the Dutch Masters of the Golden Age. A great time of prosperity and having plentiful luxuries whilst at the same time an era of uncertainty, unrest and conflict.
The paintings of Marianne are a succession of dreams, images, ideas, emotions and sensations. The dream state is something that fascinates and disturbs at the same time, usually occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Marianne likes to suggest that at the same time dreams represent hope, change and excitement. Influenced by the surrealist artist Rene Magriet, who quoted , ‘Ceci n'est pas une pipe’, recognising that art by divination exists outside reality. The collection reflects on times of isolation, showing empty spaces and isolated vignettes, expressing melancholy. The paintings are left unfinished and abstracted, devering from reality. The perspective and points of views are warped and do not match up. The fruits portrayed are falling or scattered, representing transcendence, the feeling of turning is amplified by the bright blazing sun and colours. The fruit appears to be perfectly ripe and sweet and about to go rotten. From a stage of thriving and abundance to being corrupted and rotten, implying that good and bad appear not too far apart. The blue skies represent truth, freedom, with fleeting clouds that are morphing into new forms, indicating uncertainty and a reminder of life’s impermanence. A fly appears into the artworks, unwanted, another reminder and symbol in art history of rot and wasting away. Referring to many hours alone in the studio with a fly in her company. Marianne is currently exploring the techniques and themes further and plans to expand the subject in larger formats.