Splitting Light Painting

Biography Marieke ( Ricky) Tollenaere Marieke Tollenaere was born into a Flemish family of artists and raised in Antwerp. She studied Art at the St Lucas Institute in high school, followed by Interior design at the Academy In Antwerp and later a Master Painter course at the Meylemans School for professional painters. After her studies she ran her own painting business in Belgium; specializing in marble and wood imitations, trompe lʼ-oeil, and gold leaf. This background enables her to paint with great detail and precision. She always had a passion for sailing and after having sailed for many years between the Mediterranean, Caribbean, North America, the Indian ocean and south East Asia she uses the sea as her biggest inspiration ; the colours , movement and different moods of the ocean reflect in her work. Often combined with sail boats but they are a mere suggestion . She now lives in Mallorca where she started painting on canvas in 2004. She has had exhibitions in Mallorca and Antigua. But her paintings are all over the world through commissions she has been asked to make. Her favourite medium is oil paint but often it is combined this with other materials; which gives the paintings more life and depth. Because of her life time passion for the sea she decided to start painting waves at the beginning of 2014. This turned into a project to raise more awareness to keep the oceans clean. Asociacionondine.org, a marine conservation organisation in Mallorca, seemed like the perfect platform to achieve that goal. The project is called #Making100Waves , for every wave she sells she donates a percentage to Ondine. You can see her work on her web site or follow her thru social media http://es.linkedin.com/pub/ricky-tollenaere https://www.facebook.com/aRikki twitter @Tollenaerer www.arikki.com arikki_artist instagram