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Joyce van den Engel (1976)
The work of Joyce van den Engel is characterized by a combination of fine art and expressionism. It's often rooted in the Dutch landscape, inspired by it's changing seasons, skies and waterreflections. Using her own photographs as a starting point, she translates her own world onto paper.
"All my artworks tell a story. I begin with an idea and watch the artwork evolve as I create it. It's a search that you start everytime from 0/zero. It has to be totally invented. It that can be at times very thrilling, deeply frustrating. Every element is meaningful, even the smallest detail, because each one communicates with and influences the others.
because it affects and communicates with the others.
shape, color and detail is part of the whole and is important, because it communicates with all the other elements. Its like a personal code you try to decipher with every piece, but the code does not exist before hand. It grows simultanisly with the growt of the artwork. The satisfaction of d
One of the main themes in my work is contrast, and how contrasting elements interact with eachother. Contrast between shapes, colors and of course the play between light and shadow. 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, it's 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."
"I currently 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 immediatly fell in love with them."
Hi!
Credits: Time For Succes. By Pumpupthemind (FMA)
I made some creation videos for fun and publicity. You can find more of them on my social media accounts (prints and contact).
About the creation of the drawings
Many of my drawings and paintings were not completed in the same year that I started them; they evolved over a span of 1 to 6 years.
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.
The creation of other work (collage method)
In many of my 'other work' creations you can find pieces of paper that are glued on. I use magazines, but mostly older work of my own, such as my photo's, sketches, drawings and pieces that I didn't like so much.
A few years ago I also had the idea to take a lot of my work to a copy shop, and make large color-copies. Off course this was not very good quality, but good enough to be able to create new paintings from my own work. This way, I could cut up my own work (great fun) without destroying the originals, and gain new materials and options.
Inevitable, 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 where copied and glued, and the original formed the basis for a painting finished in 2025 titled "Tulips Almost Gone".
Extra info on other work
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Heart of a Plant (2023)
Tulips Almost Gone (2025)
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