Noortje Leijten

Growing up in a traditional family in a small town in the Netherlands, Noortje Leijten realized from a young age that she didn’t fit in. Feeling suffocated between people who lived lives too conventional to her taste, she escaped this confined environment by losing herself in making art.

Noortje Leijten works while almost being in a trance, trying to connect to a deeper source while shutting down the rational part of her brain. Moving wildly through her studio while painting at a high pace, she lets her emotions run wild and tries to catch them on her canvasses. She works in layers, sometimes scribbling away with pastels, charcoal or graphite, other times applying bold colors onto the natural base she uses as a background.

The mostly large-scale canvasses ooze energy and movement, and they are meant to make the audience feel. As long as her paintings evoke a sentiment, whichver one that may be, the artist is happy.