Ritual Drawing

Astrid Oudheusden - Lochem, 1967 Elektronstraat 12, 1014 AP Amsterdam, Netherlands +316 445 66 004 Since finishing art school I dedicated my time to painting. It was my strongest desire to unravel all the secrets of oil paint. Now, the secrets seem to grow, as is often the case with them... Oil paint is the hardest medium for me. With acrylics, inks and other stuff I have no trouble at all. Must be the reason why I keep being drawn to the oils. Being a painter offers me the possibility to watch the world, its people and turn all these observations into small theatrical settings. (I had to chose between becoming a painter and an actress) I love watching people, listen to them and transform all that into one painting or drawing. Often I become obsessed with a subject: portraits, puberty, lonely women, office workers. The only way to handle the obsession is to paint. I've painted a lot of series altogether: Thousand Faces, Americans, Heroes, Puberty, Women with Dogs, Office Heroes. At the moment I am working on a series called Nothing Personal. My work is created in a big studio at the outskirts of Amsterdam, close to the city centre, but with enough distance to guarantee a calm and silent worksphere. From my windows I see the gigantic ships in the harbour and the cloud factory!