Artistic Vision — Leonoor Ruigrok
Layer by layer, image by image, I build spaces where tenderness and strength can exist at once. I am less interested in clarity than in tension, in surfaces that shift, in images that continue breathing after they are made.
My work grows from intuition, material, memory, and the physical act of painting itself.
Sometimes a symbol appears before I understand it. Sometimes a figure arrives quietly, layer by layer.
I paint what I inwardly see, not simply what stands in front of me.
The work is rooted in both human and physical nature: wind moving through open land, stories carried in the body, vulnerability beside resistance, softness beside rawness. Layering is not only part of my process, but part of how I understand being human.
For me, painting is not about certainty. It is about presence. About staying with an image long enough for something real to appear.
If you are looking for the broader context around my work and position as a contemporary Dutch female artist, you can read more in my biography and essays. Here, I speak about the work itself.
Contemporary for me, does not mean trend-driven. It means aware.
Freedom
Some paintings remain quiet. Others become restless, layered, almost confrontational. I do not try to resolve those differences too quickly. The open ending matters to me. A painting does not need to explain itself completely in order to be present. I often leave physical and emotional space around an image, so the viewer can enter it without being pushed toward one conclusion.
There is an open ending, and that is very important to me.
Narrative
Narrative enters my work naturally. Not as illustration, but as atmosphere, memory, rhythm, or tension between forms.
A figure, a landscape, a gesture, or a recurring symbol may begin suggesting a story without ever fully closing it. I am interested in that unfinished state, where something remains shifting and alive.
My paintings do not search for one fixed meaning. They leave room for personal interpretation, contradiction, and silence.
Intuition is important in this process, but intuition for me is not accidental. It grows from observation, lived experience, material knowledge, and paying close attention to what insists on returning.
The image often knows before I do.
There is an open ending, and that is very important to me.
NO LABEL, BUT…
Female Perspective
My emotional perspective is rooted in lived experience, in being a girl, a sister, a daughter, a woman, and a mother. It is not a one-sided view that fits typical ideas of what is considered feminine or masculine.
Femininity in my work is not a theme but a presence. It appears in layers, vulnerability beside strength, silence beside resistance. The feminine appears alongside the masculine. In my images they form a whole.
Refinement is connected to instinct, and both are allowed to coexist.
It is what it is, to be labeled, yet “contemporary Dutch female artist” is a position I carry consciously and with pride. Not as limitation, but as part of a wider movement of women opening visual language, storytelling, and emotional space in contemporary art.
Symbols and Narrative Layers
Symbols are never planned in advance. They appear.
The hare arrived first, vulnerable, clever, resilient. Later the deer entered, grounded, alert, strong. Steadfast houses, female figures, and wild loose hair also recur.
These symbols are not illustrations. They appear when they are needed, solitary, layered, or returning within a new composition.
Colors, brushstrokes, or sometimes palette-knife marks are placed from intuition. At the same time, I consciously search for tension and narrative composition.
Do you want to explore this deeper narrative layer? Explore my approach on symbols & narrative.
Or experience the work up close. You can visit my studio in the Netherlands and see the paintings in their physical presence.
Contemporary Dutch Female Artist — Position and Presence
Standin within the present
I position my stories in the time of now. Contemporary does not mean trend-driven. It means aware.
Being aware of what is happening in the world around me and responding to it through visual language. Within the Dutch art landscape, my work explores symbolic imagery and layered narratives.
My work is part of a broader movement within contemporary Dutch art, where female artists explore new forms of visual language, material expression and narrative depth.
Being Dutch, to me, means exploration.
Being a woman remains a layered presence in my artistic practice, carrying both femininity and the masculine within it. It comes from experiencing different roles. In this, I am lightly inspired by the book Two Queens and a King by R. J. Peskens, alongside my own upbringing, in which clear male–female clichés were largely absent.
WOMAN ARTIST – An open perspective
Purchase directly from the studio or explore available works in the portfolio.
available work
Let’s connect
Curious to drop by my studio in Voorhout, interested in one of my works, or thinking about a potential collaboration? I’d be glad to hear from you. I enjoy working with collectors, curators, galleries, designers, architects, interior creatives, and brands.
Looking forward to your message!