Winter exhibition: Time stopped for a moment

7 december 2020

For many, the past year was a time when life slowed down. Due to limited movement, stopping professional activities or working from home. Sometimes forced isolation. But it was also a time that offered space for other activities. Eugenie started working intensively on her paintings, and Elsbeth decided to closely follow the changes in nature in drawings and small watercolor paintings starting in mid-March.
Dementia is the theme in Eugenie's work. A year of working with elderly people with dementia is the basis of her paintings. Dementia has many faces. The paintings tell of the vulnerability of these elderly people in their final stages of life, their fears and delusions, as well as their beauty and joy. Eugenie's paintings invite us to look at dementia.

On her daily walks in March, Elsbeth saw the first vital signs of spring. The first blossoms, the spring blooms and soon the advancing plants and flowers. She began to paint the first spring flowers in her own garden in April, but from May she went weekly to Rucphen's Heemtuin with its wild flowers, trees and shrubs.

In the spring and summer she made quick gouache paintings on the spot there in larger format. The Heemtuin of Rucphen, also called "d'n Hof van Vincent van Gogh," is one of the most beautiful wildflower gardens in the Netherlands and Flanders with 400 different species.

By watching very intensely, you become part of a life force that inspires, amazes and moves you, making you aware of the temporality of every phase. Nature does not slow down, it does not stand still. Given the rapid changes in nature, it was a challenge to paint a work in a few days.

Some of these paintings will be displayed at the exhibition.

Vincent van Gogh, during the time he was admitted to the clinic in Saint - Rémy in southern France, also found his inspiration in the monastery garden there. He painted his famous irises there. It gave him great satisfaction, despite the limited freedom of movement.