World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 377 - Merel van Beek
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World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 377 – Merel van Beek
Recently I saw striking paintings of flowers and landscapes in the Hague Art Circle (Haagse Kunstkring). I saw a landscape with mountains in red, light green, dark green, blue, white, yellow and orange. A vase with flowers in yellow, orange, blue, red. The zest for life was apparent.
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I made an appointment with its creator, the young artist Merel van Beek. In the Coffee Company near the Noordeinde Palace she told more about her work and her life.
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Contrast and color
Merel’s work is all about contrast and color. She uses these to create landscape paintings and still lifes. In this way she creates a world of her own. Merel: “Painting gives me complete freedom to create something. Maybe it’s an unreal world. But for me that is a necessity.”
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It’s her escape from the hard world where you have to do everything. “A certificate, a job, as a woman everything is expected of you. That didn’t work very well. I also got an eating disorder. I had to escape from that. It worked. Painting gives me so much strength that it has become my passion.”
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Landscapes and still lifes
She started with what she calls ‘sensual art’. “I had to accept my body again. Making this work made me understand how sensuality works. It has helped me to feel better about my body again.”
She regained peace and a new chapter in her life began. She started making landscapes and still lifes. “That is more future-oriented and no longer about the past.”
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Key work
Does she have a key work, a work that marks a change? She has, and even two. The first is the work ‘It’s good here’. That was the beginning of a new phase in painting. “With great contrasts where a lot of hope radiated. An illustration of the ability and thinking of man.”
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The second key work is called ‘Window frame’. The painting has a baroque gold frame. “It was the beginning of my still lifes. I wanted to show how wonderful small details of life can be. How little things can bring love and fulfillment.”
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Self-taught
Merel van Beek has been painting since 2017. “I was completely lost at the time. I started painting and I noticed that it did me good. I even became fanatical about it.” She went to the Wackers Academy in Amsterdam to learn the basic techniques. After that she continued and developed her own style. She sees herself as self-taught.
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Does she have any painting examples, and if so, who are they? She says she is deeply fascinated by Van Gogh. “He had the gift of painting beautiful details. He had difficulties and shortcomings in his personal life, he got stuck in his own ‘bubble’. But he found comfort in making his work.”
A second example is Hockney. “Hockney was also fascinated by Van Gogh. With him you see contrasts and deep colors. Hockney’s work corresponds – more than Van Gogh’s work – to my work.”
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Philosophy
How will it go on? “Maybe I will go into unknown roads. I associate bright colors with hope and perseverance and dark colors with the dark side of life, but this is not necessarily the case. Maybe I will make something beautiful with dark colors.”
Finally, does Merel have a philosophy? She has. “Art gives a different view of the world. Is the world what we see around us? Or do we add something to it ourselves and is it more in the mind?”
https://www.merelskunsthuis.nl/https://ifthenisnow.eu/nl/verhalen/de-wereld-van-de-haagse-kunstenaar-120-merel-van-beek
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