Art is a democratic given; regardless of your background, age or motivations, art is accessible for everybody. Anja Nieuwold (born 1962) has been working with drawing and painting ever since she was a child. She doesn’t keep her passion to herself, she also passes it on to other people with her painting courses. We spoke to her to get to know more about her artistic practice.
“I have always been busy with art. Every birthday I would get paint, markers or other types of art supplies and ever since I was eighteen years old I would follow courses at places such as Vrijdag. I enrolled late in my life at the art academy because everybody always told me that I couldn’t make any money by making art. Nevertheless I decided in 2002 to enroll myself into art academy Minerva and ignore what people had told me so far. That’s how I graduated as an Autonomous Fine Artist and ever since I have been active as such. Besides my artistic practice I also work as an executive secretariaat employee at Gasterra. These two jobs combine very well with one another and give me the freedom to dedicate two and a half days a week to painting.
After graduating I have had a lot of luck with finding painting studios. I have always rented through a company managing vacant buildings and my first studio was at the Oosterstraat where I stayed for over three years. After that I stayed for eleven years at the former IKEA Groningen building. There I had a massive space where I could do whatever I wanted and where I could easily store all my belongings. The disadvantage of renting through such schemes is that sometimes you get a two week notice and you have to move out fast. Those situations are very stressful because you have very little time to find a new space that can house all your work and belongings. For a short while I even rented a spot in a former school building at Haren after which I moved to a former data centre from the company KPN. Very gradually I moved from a very big space to a very small space. I have always taught painting in my own studio but because my space kept on getting smaller that became nearly impossible. That’s why I decided to leave my space at the former data centre and convert my spare bedroom into a studio. My larger works I store at a rented storage unit and for my courses I rent a hall. This way it’s easier to live a peaceful life and stick to my own working ritmes.
Ever since I have my studio in my house, it’s more difficult to distance myself from the painting
My work hovers between figuration and abstraction. The only thing I never do is copy things literally in my paintings. This isn’t necessarily because my work is quite abstract but it’s usually because I use photos and sometimes there are things in the image that aren’t aesthetically pleasing so I leave them out.
Nature is my most important source of inspiration. Whenever I go for a walk I always bring my smartphone so I can take pictures as I go. These don’t have to be professionally crafted photos because they mostly serve as a way to trigger the memory and recall the ambiance of the place. I have a weakness for green spaces and water. I love the reflections of the forest and trees along the shortline and this is something that is a recurring theme in my work. A fruit bowl with a nice colour scheme can prompt a new idea for an abstract work.
The photos I use are just a start for my painting and from there a new painting will develop itself. At the end of the ride I leave the photo far beyond me. This can be a tricky balance since some things are easily captured in photography but won’t be translated easily into painting. Ever since I have my studio in my house it is also difficult to distance yourself from the painting. Normally you would leave your studio at the end of the day and that would naturally force you to stop working, at home that’s not so easily done. But then, a day later or so, you see the painting again and things aren’t as desperate as they seemed the day before. At home you just continue working and that’s not always a good thing. Even when I am not happy with a painting I will never discard very easily. There is always something in the painting that can be used. As a painter, you always need to stay alert and never paint automatically. You have got to keep an eye on what is happening in the painting. There is always a solution somewhere, hidden inside the painting, you just have got to see it and that takes some time.”
For more information about Anja Nieuwold, visit her website. In addition, you can also find her work in our Art Rental Collection.