I work through material and movement. In my work, symbolism in painting does not begin with a fixed idea, but emerges through the process itself.

material and gesture painting

The image does not begin as a fixed idea, but takes form through contact. Through pressure, resistance, and the way a surface responds. Each gesture leaves a trace, and that trace becomes part of what the image can become.

Material is not a tool to execute something. It is an active part of the process.

Material as a starting point

I do not work from one fixed material. Oil, acrylic, charcoal, or mixed media, each brings a different possibility.

Sometimes I need the density of oil, the way it holds and builds. At other times I move towards charcoal, because it allows a directness, a sensitivity in pressure, a range of marks that stays close to my hand.

The choice of material is not technical. It follows what the image asks for.

Gesture and movement

Gesture is essential in my work.

I move around the surface. I come close, step back, return again. The image is not built from a single position, but from a continuous shifting in distance and perspective.

Freedom is an underlying force here. Not as something uncontrolled, but as a way to allow movement to remain present in the work. A fast stroke can open something. A slower, more controlled gesture can hold it.

Both are needed.

Pressure, resistance, and surface

Every material has its own resistance.

Paint can be pushed, dragged, layered, or broken open again. Charcoal can be pressed into the surface or barely touch it. These differences matter, because they shape what becomes visible.

The surface is not neutral. It reacts.

Sometimes I work into what is already there, sometimes I go against it. That friction is where something shifts.

Control and intuition

I move between directing and allowing.

There are moments where I intervene, because something becomes too clear, too fixed, or too closed. And there are moments where I follow what appears, without trying to resolve it immediately.

Intuition is not random. It comes from working, from looking, from staying with the image long enough for it to reveal where it needs to go.

Within my way of working

Material and gesture are inseparable from how an image develops over time. The way a layer is applied, repeated, or interrupted directly influences what can emerge.

More about how this unfolds through time can be found in my approach to layered painting.

And how these movements and traces eventually become part of a larger meaning is reflected in my use of symbols and narrative.

Position

In my work, material is not secondary to the image. It is the image.

The gesture, the pressure, the way something is placed or held back, these are not only formal decisions. They carry presence.

Within my position as a contemporary Dutch female artist, this way of working allows me to move between control and openness, between form and something that remains in motion.