Jugendstil Painting

Filtered through memory, the work examines the interactions of landscape and the eternal forces of the natural world. In this body of work entitled BOTANY, Marianne van Lent explores the voluptuous and verdant quality of plant- life and foliage. Concerned with the notion of “being in nature” the images are conjured… up close and personal, and channeled through memory. The canvas overflows with sensuous color and bold gestural energy evoking the remembered wonder of nature. The Botany Paintings depart somewhat from the ongoing theme in van Lent’s currant oeuvre where the threat of the imbalance of our natural world lurks behind the picture plane. The botany Paintings indulge the painter and the viewer in an idealized and unscathed view of pure beauty.