self portrait Mariël van den Eerenbeemt

I like to see a painting as a silent piece of music.

I don't necessarily feel the urge to paint a subject. The subject is secondary. I can talk about a subject, write about it, or take a photograph. A subject can be very distractive when you look at a painting, there is no need to understand it. If you start to think about the meaning of a painting, you'll miss to see the painting. A lot of people want to see things they can recognize. It's OK if you don't recognize anything at all. I like to see a painting as a silent piece of music.

Color is a huge dictionary of pure energy. Each day my vocabulary is growing a little bit more. Since color is the core of painting for me, to paint abstract always felt very natural.

Color has a vibration, just like a sound. When i paint, color is the most important element, not the subject. I use colors, just like i use my own voice to express my feelings. I don't try to follow a certain theory. It can be very exciting to start without a plan, you can't explain what happens. Color is a huge dictionary of pure energy, and each day my vocabulary is growing a little bit more. Since color is the core of painting for me, to paint abstract always felt very natural. Just like a musician, or a dancer, i exercise, but not in the sense that it is like a sport, not always you will improve by repetition. Otherwise it becomes an automatism. It's a process of trying out different things, to reflect, to repeate and take small steps, or just wait. It's more about integrity, questioning yourself very honestly. There is no goal, no ultimate destiny. It happens on the the sideways of the road. To experiment, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

My work is related to nature and has strong parallels with science, like astronomy, microbiology, chemistry, architecture, all i can imagine. It’s a world within a world.

I never understood why people declare abstract art or painting as dead. In my opinion even a figurative work is abstract in a certain way. I truly do believe, that abstract art is very rich. When a teacher explained a theory on the blackboard, i was fascinated by the image, for me they were abstract drawings. Abstract art makes a direct connection to the nature of everything. It's about the skeleton, the basic elements of all creation. Space, light, color, composition, rhythm, sound, shapes, lines, dimensions, texture. My work is related to nature and has strong parallels with science, like astronomy, microbiology, chemistry, architecture, all i can imagine. It’s a world within a world. The micro and macro cosmos.

Mariël van den Eerenbeemt