Engelina Zandstra

Engelina Zandstra

Bilthoven, Utrecht, Netherlands

About Engelina Zandstra

- Artist statement : many roads are leading to the unknown - around every corner a surprise - fata morganas unprecedented views - paintings designed according to laws of their own. - She lives and works in Bilthoven, the Netherlands. She obtained her doctoral degree in physical chemistry at the University of Amsterdam, and then worked as a teacher at the Hogeschool Alkmaar, the Netherlands. About 1992, she started painting by following various courses in this area in Amsterdam, also in etching, modeling and screen printing. In recent years she has focused on painting with acrylic paint. - My style of painting is inspired by the abstract-expressionism. I admire their sense of freedom of expression. I am also fascinated by the alchemy of colour. - Her art images are created in her head and in her mind. Her fascination with images that are not possible or not correct representations of reality, cuts across the idiom of the art of Surrealism. The style of her paintings can best be described as lyrical-abstract. Usually she works in several thin layers over each other. Each layer provides inspiration for the next, with new ideas. The different layers and colors gives the acrylic paint depth and character. My paintings find their shape during the making of them. Starting point is a certain image I have in mind, or a distinct form or colour. My way of working is spontaneous, a process of improvisation. The painting is a work of action, until a stage is reached wherein every form and colour is for me at the right place. In this way the paintings are the reproduction of internal images : 'landscapes of the mind'. My style is abstract-figurative, with often the human form as a subject. - Special style : surrealism. Favorite painters : Picasso and de Chirico. - As regards the meaning of a work: her paintings are like music, there are no words needed for its interpretation. Each painting tells its own story, and those who look at it may experience it in his own way, can give his own meaning to it. - underneath colour and shape there are laws a painting must fulfill an invisible framework proportions movement limitations one must be able to enter the painting and to leave it the arrangement of the forms is leading the phantasy via the unknown to the inner life colour and form forged together with the laws shaped by the artist

Education:

- From 1992 until 1998, she followed courses, workshops and private lessons in Amsterdam in the field of painting, etching, modelling, and screen printing.

- Self-taught.

Events:

- Various solo and group exhibitions held since 1995 in the Netherlands. Also participated in group exhibitions in Belgium, Germany, Hungary and America.

Member of Kunstkring Art Circle BeeKk in Bilthoven since 2019.

Exhibitions:

- Exhibitions

2019 Exposition Art Circle BeeKk, Bilthoven, October
18 - 20

2011 Artists Haven Gallery - Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.A.
International Fine Art Painting Competition,
June 2011
2010 - Het Kunstbedriif, Heemstede
- De Lange Litanie, Roeselare, België
- Diaconessenhuis, Meppel
- Galerie De Kleine Hoogstraat, Leeuwarden
2009 - Marziart International Gallery. Hamburg, Germany
- Collective Exhibition by Selected Artists from the Netherlands, Opera Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2008 - Het Kunstbedrijf, Heemstede
- Galerie Oost 99, Hoorn
- Open Atelierroute, Amsterdam-Noord
2003 - Galerie 'de Opsteker', Amsterdam
1999 - Galerie 66, Amsterdam
- Galerie ‘de Opsteker’, Dorpskerk Durgerdam, Amsterdam
1998 - Presentatiecentrum 'Het Slakkenhuis', Soest
- De Badcuyp, Amsterdam
- Art Expo, Amsterdam
- Galerie 'Tussen de poortjes', Hoorn
1997 - Galerie 'de Opsteker', Amsterdam
l996 - Galerie 'A Vue', Maarssen
- CLB (Sanquin), Amsterdam
- Galerie 'Three of a kind', Amsterdam
1995 - Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam
- Hogeschool Amsterdam, Amsterdam
- Hogeschool Alkmaar, Alkmaar
- Amsterdam Studio's, Amsterdam