Structures III, pendrawing Drawing

Theresa Rijssenbeek makes large works full of colour, full of stillness, also smaller effigies in which space is compressed or a detail is enlarged. Pen drawings, oil on linen, abstracts, still lifes, landscapes, portraits: all made by the craftswoman whom the director of the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam called 'a real painter'. A visual artist of stature, with nature as her greatest inspiration. Born in Breda, in 1951, in a large and noisy Catholic family where creativity was common. In Theresa's early childhood, the family moved to Bloemendaal, where she lost herself in drawing and painting, with nature as her quiet place. After she got married, she started working in the studio of the painter Marie Willemse in Rotterdam. When the first children were born, she moved to Curaçao with her family. There in the paradise of light and color she put herself to work. A first exhibition with great success was the result. Assignments were pouring in. Back in the Netherlands, she started the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, under the inspiring leadership of Rien Bout. She quit when her fourth child was born, but Rien continued to guide her in her studio. Her first exhibition was in Amsterdam in 1990 with many to follow. In 1998 she moved to the Berry in France and continued exhibiting there. In 2008 she remarries, travels the world and now paints in her studio in the Dordogne. France.