Fat Spoiled Lady Painting

The Lyrical Expressionism of Gerdine Duijsens They seem to just flow from her creative hands, her "˜on-the-mark' and revealing insights into the rich and empty lives of the party animals and reception-addicted, the oyster slurpers and champagne guzzlers, the endless gluttons and unbridled drinkers, the booze worshippers and party hour regulars, the bigwigs and bums she has portrayed with all their stupidity and vanity on more than a thousand canvasses by now. Yet, it's not just bloated hot air salesman who populate her colourful canvasses. In their unguarded moments, Gerdine displays her characters with a slight derision as their vulnerable and insecure selves, when in their seemingly unobserved moments they briefly try to escape from a World in which status, knowledge, protocols and power keep them prisoner. Lyrical expressionism in its purest form. We see ourselves when we gaze at Gerdine Duijsens' paintings. We just can't help it; a smile wants to appear on our lips as a chuckle wordks its way up from our midriff. It's why we want to have her paintings hanging on our walls. Is's because they say something abourt us, beacause they are real! A Career in Art After a short period, Gerdine walked away from the Artibus Academy in Utrecht. There she had hoped to perfect the drawing skills that she had been working on for years. She wanted to learn about anatomy and painting portraits, but this turned to be a mistake, as abstract painting was very hip in those days. This didn't appeal to her at all. An assignment to paint "a space" was for Gerdine as an eighteen year old youngster impossible. It just seemed way too ambiguous for her. She thougt that she would need that technical know-how later on to be able to transpose the images from her brain to paper. It maght have been "a little stupid" for someone aspiring to build a career in art to drop out so quickly. But then again, becoming an artist just didn't seem to be a priority at the time, as it was simply about improving her drawing skills. The shortcoming, call it that if you will, was later rectified by attending the "Academie voor Schone Kunsten" in Arendonk Belgium. There was no denying it anymore, it was clear that the foundation of her abilities had already beel laid and the time for fruition of this talent had come. Indeed, this is when things sped up considerably. Before long, Gerdine was teaching water colour painting. A Born Artist Gerdine Duijsens was born in 1951 in Utrecht. A career in art wasn't part of the plan initially, but there was no stopping her as time went by. Once the children had all gone there seperate ways, she gave way to something deep inside that she had really alwasys known, ever since the days she played hooky while muching on her sandwiches in the "Centraal Museum". Gerdine believes one doesn't become an artist, but somebody is born one. Whether or not you actually do something with the talent is up to that person. Talent What other people do with their talent surprises her sometimes. It would seem that some artist might have lost their way: the fact that there are certain artists that only create art to provoke and shock people, an insult to the artist profession. Sometimes we see modern art that is so confronting, revolting and shocking, that Gerdine doesn't get it anymore. This of course, doesn't apply to art that is supported by a story that explains why the artists chose a particular medium of expression. Beauty is not an issue here, this is an empty concept. Art has got to reach you, be interesting, refreshing and change your train of thought. An artist can share his/her world with you, their own take on the world. This is why Gerdine doesn't understand those who copy other artist's work, or even go so far as to imitate it. Gerdine doesn't get why people don't create their own work. Why don't the use their skills for their own fantasies? The Dining Scenes, her Trademark Gerdine Duijsens has a very recognisable style that can be distinguished by four main elements: people, animals, abstract and portraits. Her people are "bon-vivants", somewhat blasé or comical, arrogant or insecure, cheerful or bored. Her animals are temperamental, powerful, dynamic and fast, her abstracts captivating, layered and exciting and her portraits are from all times. Nowadays the dining scenes have become Gerdine's trademark and have generated a steadily growing club of aficionados throughout all over the World. Here comes that chuckle up from the midriff again. It slips up to our temples and tosses about in our hair. It tingles our eye sockets and tickles our throats. We recognise the people on the canvasses, they're our families, they're our friends, they're us. They move us and make us laugh. We love them and want to have them with us. We want them with us because they make us happy. (Written by journalist Annette Wierper)