Marianne De Roo
I have always been drawing, and in doing so I want to create my own version of what is.
In my work I focus on portraits, the human figure and the botanical world.
I seek absence, balance and discrepancy. And contemplate.
I thrive on disobedience, do not take things for granted, do not listen to many.
But there is no purpose in art, and that is its strength. In contrast to everything that "needs to be", art does not need to be anything.
In there, I have found the freedom to create whatever I want.
Could you tell us more about your background and how you began creating art?
At school, I was often drawing during lessons. I am a rather disobedient individual. My notebooks were filled with sketches, colour studies, portraits.
Many years later, in my adulthood, I decided to go to the art academy in order to learn the techniques behind drawing and painting. In the art academy, I obtained my degree in drawing and subsequently my degree in painting. I discovered the array of views and theories there is on art itself. That was a revelation.
Since then, I have established myself as a fulltime artist. I still draw regularly, because to me, drawing is the grammar of it all. It is the foundation of my work.
I have an innate attraction to settings, compositions and colour. In daily life, small things catch my eye, little gestures are the ones I notice. They influence my view on things.
What does your art aim to say to its viewers?
There is no definite purpose in what I create. I paint and draw without actively aiming to say something specific.
However, I cannot deny the fact that my art expresses a certain message. I guess it is mostly about the beauty of an empty space within a reality, celebrating a certain vulnerability, suggesting rather than saying.
I like to think that emptiness or absence within a reality can carry an absolute beauty. I like to convey the message that discrepancy can bring balance. We all seek our own version of beauty after all, and we shouldn’t be afraid to do so.
I find the magnificence of our world vast and subtle, it is obvious and hidden at the same time.
Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your daily routine when working?
When I paint, it is a combination of discipline and impulsiveness. Both aspects are of crucial importance to me.
Starting, I know exactly what I want to paint, the subject I want to put down on canvas. At the same time, I can encounter a new element on my way to the studio, remember an unusual colour seen the week before, an illogic combination of shape & texture that I want to try out and include in my work.
As for a routine, I often enter my studio without switching on the lights and stand there in the twilight. Looking around me, I observe the canvasses and can tell easily the failed ones from the better ones. Those who stand their ground in half-darkness will certainly be strong in full light. It is fool-proof. It is magical.
I tend to work on several projects at the same time. The more work there is to be done, the better I function. There is an actual queue of projects in my head and depending on my mood, I work on one or another.
What is the essential element in your art?
It is atmosphere.
I create this with two key elements:
The care for texture. I like my brushstrokes to be visible, that you can guess the flow, the speed of the strokes and the movement of the hand. I find absolute smoothness too hermetic.
The use of colour. I am not a purist, which means that when painting, my brush often stains the neighbouring dye. That is a disturbing subtlety I cherish.
In your opinion, what role does the artist have in society?
One of art’s universal values is its power to force people to slow down. Whatever era we live in. And when one stops, there is time to ponder, to wonder, to analyse or to cry, to doubt or to rejoice. To feel alive, really.
Within that setting, the artist’s role is to take a stance, to make a statement.
I am free to do as I see fit. I am free to shed light and shadow where I want. I am free to express an opinion on how I rearrange reality. And I happen to use paint to do it.
