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Joyce van den Engel (born 1976) 

Her work is characterized by a combination of figurative fine art and expressionism. It is often rooted in the Dutch landscape, inspired by its changing seasons, skies and water reflections. Using her own photographs as a starting point, she translates her world onto canvas or paper.

All my artworks tell a story. They start with an idea and I watch the artwork evolve as I create it. Finding satisfaction within that search, without knowing what I am looking for, is extremely rewarding.

One of the main themes in my work is contrast and the way opposing elements interact, particulary in the tension between light and darkness, shape and color. I remember once, while visiting a student graduation show, I went outside for a break with a juice. It was an extremely hot and bright day. As I was drinking, I looked at a large tree nearby, its crown heavy with low, dense leaves. I kept noticing how deep the darkness was beneath the tree. Everything else was washed in light, the grass, the leaves, the air. As if all the colors that day had faded because of the brightness. Yet the depth of the shadow seemed to have moved in the opposite direction: it was darker, instead of weakened by the light. This co-dependence was deeply fascinating to me, and the image has always stayed with me.

Currently I work mostly with acrylics, colored pencils, and collage techniques. Colored pencils are a relatively recent discovery for me: I started using them in 2020, and immediately fell in love with them.
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Creation video
Credits: 5th coffee [Lo-fi], by HappyWorldWithMochi (FMA)
I made some creation videos for fun and publicity. You can find more of them on my social media accounts (prints & contact).

The Working Process
Drawings and Paintings, 2019-2025

Over the past six years, many of my drawings and paintings were not completed within the same year in which I started them. Instead, they were repeatedly set aside, sometimes for years, reconsidered, and taken up again.  
Some drawings include touches of acrylic, used in the finishing process. The first reason for this was practical, because I started to damage the paper with the numerous layers of pencil lines trying to change the drawing once again. The second reason was that it allowed me to bring back calmer and more even areas, using a brush instead of adding more small pencil lines.
Other Work
Working with Pieces of Paper


In many works from my Other Work series, there are pieces of paper that are glued on. I use material from magazines, but more often I work with older pieces of my own, such as photographs, sketches, drawings and work I was less satisfied with.
     A few years ago, I got the idea to take a lot of my work to a copy shop, and make large color copies. Of course, the quality wasn't very good, but it was good enough to allow me to create new pieces. In this way, I could cut up my own work, which was great fun, without destroying the originals, and gain new materials and options.
     Inevitably, some parts of one painting also exist in another work. For instance the work Heart of a Plant  contains pieces of blue in the background with two identical yellow tulips. They were copied and glued, and the original formed the basis for a painting finished in 2025 titled WiltingTulips.
Extra info on other work
collage painting, inside plat, belief, church, dark waters, dark sky, path
Heart of a Plant (2023)
IMG_0191-glaze zonder compress (8).JPEG
Wilting Tulips (2025)
All artwork © Joyce van den Engel 2025
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