About me
Antoinette van de Wal (1958)
Graduated from the Institut supérieur de peinture VAN DER KELEN LOGELAIN (1991 – 1992), with a medaille d’argent.
Graduated in 2015 from the Academie voor Kunst en Ambacht and received the title fine art master painter.
Lives and works in The Hague, The Netherlands.
Artist member of Pulchri Studio
My work
With my work I seek to show the layered quality and the materiality of the world around me. I find my subjects around my home, in my vegetable garden and outside in nature.
The thing that drives me is curiosity and respect for the mysterious, dark growth force within nature. Another driving force is the question why certain forms and structures are considered beautiful. That experience of beauty is vitally important to me. It is what I live for.
Layers
Colour, texture and organic forms come together in my work to form a complex visual web. This layered quality can refer to processes of transience, weathering and the movement of time. The Japanse philosophy of wabi-sabi is very close to my way of thinking: imperfection in the right place.
Paint skin
By making my own paint I explore the materiality of my subject to an even greater depth. I work with centuries-old recipes and materials like damar, rabbit skin glue, chalk, eggs, nut oil and pigments. I also prepare my own surfaces for painting. This process is an important part of my work. This way my work becomes an extension of myself and it gains a structure that is unique.
It has a soul.
In the interaction of materials and myself the raw quality of the creative process can still be seen. My work is not polished, but it is certainly carefully considered.