Born by the river Painting

For plein-air artist Sonja Brussen, nature is the greatest source of inspiration. She sets out to capture the moment, the speed of light, the change of clouds. It is an ongoing hunt and a daily quest to capture light, air and space. Nature has fascinated her from a young age, and she captures it with a minimum of human influences. Her powerful works, which connect Impressionism and Expressionism, are painted alla prima (wet-on-wet) by Sonja Brussen. Her technique and use of colour are strong and very personal. In the field, she is influenced by what is going on in nature: sun, cold, wind, rain. All these influences contribute to the creation and the atmosphere of her work. For her, that includes the sound of nature: the birds, the wind, a splash in the water and the rustle in the bushes. That feeling of nature is so intense that, when you look at her work, you immediately experience being in the middle of that piece of nature. You therefore not only look at an image of nature, but you are, as it were, part of it. Trained by passionate teachers and graduated with the upgrade at ArteZ (University of the Arts), she is constantly innovating. She has been working as a professional visual artist in Lochem since 1998. She has been a member of the Dutch Association of Sea Painters since 2016. Harry J. Kraaij, art historian