About my artwork
‘I LIKE TAKING THE IMAGE TO A BREAKING POINT.’
Artist Statement
My work grows from the quiet spaces in the studio. It exists between finished pieces, unresolved thoughts, and moments of stillness. Working with oil on canvas, my shift toward floral imagery is a conscious choice to slow down. I want to inhabit the fluid process of painting itself, free from narrative constraint or heavy symbolism.
Flowers occupy a liminal space. They balance between life and decay, control and chaos. They offer an organic structure without rigid geometry. While they repeat endlessly, they never duplicate. This vital energy resists definition, allowing the paint to naturally guide the work toward abstraction.
This practice connects with art history. I often think of 17th-century Dutch floral art. Those painters constructed impossible bouquets, mixing flowers from different seasons. They embraced the fiction. The impossibility was the point—a poetic attempt to arrest time.
Because flowers are fleeting, painting extends their presence. It does not promise permanence. Instead, it creates a prolonged space for observation. By stripping away the non-essential, the work focuses entirely on the medium. Ultimately, it is all about painting.
@irenevandenbos