World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 264 - Ingrid Stassen
World Fine Art Professionals and their Key-Pieces, 264 - Ingrid Stassen
Ingrid Stassen's paintings show meadows, seascapes, wetlands, intense red and blue areas and orange-yellow desert mountains. At least, you can see that when you look at the works from a distance. On the walls in her house there are several large ones. Some horizontally, one square and three vertically. I first saw her work through the window of Gallery 44 in Molenstraat, The Hague.
I speak with Ingrid in her house in a beautiful neighborhood near Madurodam. She says she has been painting for a long time. Initially it was a hobby, in addition to her career as an HRM manager in business. At a certain moment she missed something and and got in contact with various visual artists. In 2004 she was admitted to the Free Academy and followed her education there. The most inspiring teacher at the Academy was for her Zhuang Hong Yi, a now internationally renowned artist. In addition to working with different types of ink and acrylic on rice paper, she learned from him how to create the power of open-mindedness and respond intuitively to what arises. Once working in her studio, she initially worked with thinned acrylic paint, brushes and small flat knives. But then a good friend came to visit, who also paints.
Other technique
“She had large palette knives. That requires a different working method, a different technique, more free and daring.” One of the works thus created in 2015, 'The golden mountain of hope', 100 x 120, acrylic on canvas, marks Ingrid as her first key work, a work that marked a turn in her work towards particularly large, colorful , abstracted works, acrylic on canvas, layer by layer, following her intuition.
With her special titles she gives the viewer an entrance, while always leaving the necessary interpretative possibilities.
She has another key work, also from 2015, ‘I love Paris’, 150 x 50 cm, acrylic on canvas. It is the work that was depicted on the invitation for her first solo exhibition. That was in 2016 at bulthaup. “My sister knows someone from this high-end kitchen company on the Binckhorstlaan. He saw my paintings at her home and he couldn't let go. Was it not possible to exhibit my works in their showroom? The combination of the sleek contemporary kitchens with my colorful paintings? The solo exhibition came and was very well received. The opening in June 2016 was well attended and successful and in October we were able to make a link to Art The Hague, the annual art fair in the almost adjacent Fokker Terminal. ”
Less than two years later, Ingrid had her 5th solo exhibition and she is rightly very happy and proud of that.
Paths to happiness
In 2016 she also made her third key work, ‘Paths to happiness’, 100 x 100, acrylic on canvas. “I am very attached to this painting. I ended up with a landscape painting, as is often the case, although there is no real horizon.” It embodies her positive outlook on life. “I enjoy evoking joy, strength and optimism in people. I try, even with setbacks, to get the best out of my days and enjoy, I also want to let others enjoy. That makes life more valuable and fun, for me, but hopefully also for others.”
Atelier
Does she feel like an artist? “I have been painting for a long time. When you come out of a busy job in business and make the turnaround, it takes a long time before you feel like an artist and can convey that to your environment. On the occasion of the exhibition at bulthaup, I had my first business cards made, I formed a nice team of professionals around me and my website was launched. But after a few solo exhibitions and the positive reactions to them, I now dare to call myself an artist. ”
Rightly, it seems to me. Jan Kleijne, art collector and board member of the Armando Foundation, previously wrote about her work: “Ingrid's abstracts stimulate the imagination. The multitude of colors alternately expresses expressionist passion and lyrical poetry. The layering of the paint and the strokes of the brush and palette knife draws you into her work: a sensation that is part of true art. ”
We go to her atelier. It is located a few houses away on the second floor. It has northern lights and skylights, ideal for painting. A side room serves as a storage space for her work. There is a large, colorful painting on the easel in which you could see a mountain in the sea. I see the palette knives, the large and the small. She always starts a painting with an underlayer, she says. “Usually Prussian blue or some other dark shade. I work from dark to light. On average, a work has seven layers.” She works on Artel canvases with an aluminum frame and usually uses ARA acrylic paint. "The red of ARA is beautiful, blood red, it is highly pigmented and has a brilliant shine."
Images
1) Day for a daydream, 2) Blow away the dark clouds, 3) Choices have consequences, 60x60 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2016, 4) A journey through time, acrylic on canvas, 110x150 , 5) Feeling part of nature , 50x50 cm, 2016, 6) Gallery 44 invitation card, 7) Snowflake gems, 50x50, 2016, 8) Waves of dolphins joy, 100x100 cm, 2016, 9) Whispered secrets, 10) Ingrid Stassen (2nd from right)
