About Florentijn De Boer
Florentijn de Boer is a very young talented Dutch painter currently living and working in The Hague, where she gained her Fine Arts Painting diploma last year at the Royal Academy of Art. In 2016 she also pursued a Fine Arts Sculpture course at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara in Italy. And this is just to mention some of her skills.
PAINTING PROCESS
“My paintings reflect a strong drive to represent the world as seen through my eyes. In the process of painting, forms as we conventionally know them are transformed into a fluent movement. My intention is to interest viewers in the total body of the picture and to suggest the relation of the painted to reality.” , is what she answered when we asked Florentijn to briefly describe her work through her personal point of view. She focused on explaining the process of extrapolating a series of forms that will merge in the close connection between good and bad, to depict the restricted boundaries between these opposites.
“When painting, I try to overturn the law of gravity and exceed logical thought. The suggestion of depth in the paintings arises through the combination of geometric and organic elements. Constructing vertical lines and placing playful forms around them sets the picture in motion. Showing (e)motion is a major motive. I use oil stick on linen with the linen remaining visible so that it can act as a natural force.”, is how she explains her creative workflow.
ARTIST’S EXCLUSIVE FOR HUE&EYE
Florentijn has hungry eyes and feels the urge to translate everything she sees into a personal point of view which will find its voice through painting. Everything has a creative exit in her world.
For example, she sent Hue&Eye a beautiful sketch of a future work of hers, in which she deepens the complexity of her approach and technique, expressed through the relation of a selected story and the addressed canvas.
Swimming in the lake I had the idea
that the bird of prey gliding over our heads would hold us for fishes
It felt as if my arms were fishes too
Being in the water, I am always afraid
so I swam as fast as I could to the other shore Actually, I am no great swimmer
Danger, both winging over our heads and lurking below While in fact nothing was the matter
The underwater world
it is reflecting the sun
Or you can look straight through it infinity, properly halted
The exuberant life
Burgundian bathing in the sun, at the water line Ultimate pleasure at the lakeside
Yet a torment for me
stilled by apple cider under a tree
and the sleep that follows
Collecting images
combining them to create a personal picture It concerns intermediate relationships
They are essential
The relations between objects
To the other side of the lake And back
DE BOER’S RELATIONSHIP WITH ART
She entirely devotes her time to painting. “I work long days. I can rest only once the work is completely finished. Before then, sleep is not important. Now that it is summer, I try to enjoy the fine weather and take as often as possible a brief swim in the sea”.
Since she was a young child she never stopped painting, and although she is still very young, she is also fascinated by The Analysis of Beauty – the theory, of William Hogarth. “Every difficulty in understanding an object increases the pleasure of overcoming it – I depict this movement in my paintings”. In her works, Florentijn hopes to disappear, to let the public forget about how the piece was created, so to just get absorbed by the interplay of the forms in the picture itself.
FUTURE PROJECTS
Florentijn today dreams of a big mansion outside the city where she may paint in the garden: “… the Burgundian, romantic life.”, she explains. After all, this is what French painters used to do when they founded the term En Plein Air! Meantime she will soon paint her atelier as blue as the sky and is currently represented by Rademakers Gallery in Amsterdam.
Visit her website to learn more.
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