impressions
"Every true work of art reveals a piece of the soul of its creator."
Gallery
I am pleased about the opportunity to give you an impression of my artistic work.
The gallery includes a variety of my work since 2020 as well as a few earlier works.
All images are provided with information on the title, year of origin, technology and dimensions.
Are you interested in one of the available works? If you would like to purchase one of the pictures or enter into a dialogue with me about the works of art shown, please use the contact form.
I look forward to your inquiries!
Hella Ridder, 04/05/2021
Essay
Abstraction as a language of emotional reflection
In the world of the young 21st century, which is characterized by diversity, inner turmoil and contradictions, art is characterized by the same richness of expression, the multiplicity of possibilities and truths as humanity as a whole in the world, science and reality that surrounds it.
Everything is possible, little fixed or prescribed.
The rule is self-development and, in the best case, the restriction that the rights and freedoms of other individuals may not be impaired by our actions just as little as we ourselves.
At the same time, we are deeply insecure in this world full of possibilities.
Describing ourselves and the self, reflecting, holding up a mirror of self-knowledge, has always been an essence of art, ideally connected to the beauty of the created object, allowing the viewer, in a magical moment of interaction, the brief touch of the eternal .
„In the Beginning....“
2021; 60*120(cm); Acrylic on canvas
So why, given this diversity and the simultaneously endless possibilities of artistic creation, should abstraction appear as the language of emotional reflection?
The well-founded answer to this question - yes or no - should be left to the curators, art historians, art critics.
My own answer is based solely on my own artistic creativity and work: My individual artistic truth, which makes no claim to validity outside of subjectivity.
„Powers of a new Spring rising”
2021; 100*100(cm); Acrylic on canvas
The emotional state that I want to process, describe and make empathetic for the viewer can either be triggered by my own encounter with my surroundings - such as Example of the overwhelming feeling that can arise when experiencing a landscape associated with the dawning and indomitable power of a new season ("Powers of a new spring rising") in a conflictual experience of a work or everyday situation ("Decisions and Consequences ), perhaps grounded in a momentary blockage (“inner blocks and boundaries”), reflected in a temporary emotional state, or dedicated to focusing on different emotional tensions and goals.
I am always concerned with penetrating the situational emotional state, reflecting it and processing it in the abstraction in such a way that a language is created in which my emotionality can also be experienced by the open viewer at this special moment.
„Decisions and Consequences”
2021; 80*60(cm); Acrylic on canvas
It follows that in the diversity of my pictures, a bridge can always arise between viewer, picture and artist when comparable, similar or perhaps completely different emotions are present on both sides, so that the picture speaks a language of abstraction a dialogue becomes possible...
Since the emotional experience itself cannot be objectified, but is always an individual condition shaped by our personality and the reality of life, it ultimately remains beyond scientific description, must be presented metaphorically, but ultimately it must always be felt.
Reflecting on the state itself opens up the possibility for us to translate inner reality into verbal language, which must resort to comparisons, connections and illustrations, and thus leads the subjective state back to "objectivity".
A phenomenon that is abstract in its ultimate instance is thus indirectly made accessible to a linguistic debate and a dialogue.
„Inner Blocks and Boundaries“
2021; 80*60(cm); Acrylic on canvas
Through this apparent objectification, however, much of the immediacy of the emotion itself and of this particular reality is lost.
That's why I decided not to choose verbal language as a medium for exchanging information about this experience, but to remain in the expression through abstract painting ultimately on the abstract level of emotionality itself.
The reflection in the sense of a deeply penetrating experience and recognition of this inner state, i.e. not to be equated with the psychological or philosophical attention and discussion, enables me to use an abstract visual language in the creative process and thus a corresponding dialogue with the viewer of the picture, who is on that level of emotionality himself in an archaic way enables a truth of feeling and exchange that otherwise remains closed to me.
Surrounded and embedded as an individual in an environment and environment that creates changing emotions and individual states from a multitude of impressions, challenges and opportunities, reflection and penetration of this is a path to subjective reality, a path to clarity and individual decision-making in the challenge of daily diversity.
Inner harmony and balance become benchmarks for the correctness of a decision.
The speed of decision-making processes is also determined by the achievement of individual balance, awareness and reflection.
„A Moment of Understandig“
2021; 40*80(cm); Acrylic on canvas
In the picture "A Moment of Understanding" I process and describe exactly this personalized feeling "I understand what you mean", "I understand you (at this moment)", "I understand and penetrate this special situation in a moment of full clarity “.
This moment of understanding, of “being able to empathize” is always associated with a state of inner balance as a snapshot of our inner life.
In contrast, the original creative act, full of power and explosive potential, is more of an ecstatic feeling... For me, it is always associated with the description of the act of creation from the Bible... an infinite potential.: “In the beginning, God created heaven and earth. And the earth was waste and empty, and darkness lay on the deep; and the Spirit of God hovered over the water. And God said: Let there be light! And there was light. And God saw that the light was good. Then God separated the light from the darkness and called the light day and the darkness night” (The Bible, Genesis).
In unique moments, in which we completely arrive at ourselves, this irrepressible creative power suddenly unfolds within us, pushes outwards and gives our actions a new dimension.
One way to reflect and share this individual and yet universal experience, to open oneself and the emotional process to other individuals in this shared world, can be artistic processing.
Details
Every creative work requires sensitive detail design - sometimes in barely noticed nuances.
It is the details that contribute to achieving the desired overall effect, which is why I always pay the same attention to each individual detail as to the work as a whole.
The complete picture, the visualized emotion, emerges from the overall harmony of designed details.
What role does speed play when painting in this context?
Should speed be considered at all when creating art?
Yes and no, because the aim cannot be to create as many works of art as possible in as short a time as possible. This is completely opposed to the creative act in art. Nevertheless, I keep noticing how differently the creative processes develop, also and especially with regard to the speed of development.
As a rule, I work in a variety of layers to achieve the special color effect of my paintings, to give them depth and "language".
I often continue to work on layers of wet paint, which creates particularly exciting color mixing effects.
Then again I let the picture dry to set the next effect with a rather dry brush and the pure color.
In my perception of speed, this time and duration are not the decisive factors.
„Focused and Searching“
2021; 100*120(cm); Acrylic on canvas
I also experience - like probably most artists - that the increasing mastery of the technique used, the material and the experience in the chosen process lead me faster and faster to the desired expression.
Effects in which chance plays a design role can be controlled with greater ease.
Nevertheless, a limiting size remains. Surprisingly, this is the degree to which I have already penetrated and reflectively experienced the object or the emotional state that I want to bring to life in the picture.
Only after I have completely understood this feeling, this state of mind that drives my work, for a brief moment, do I succeed in finally expressing it, making it possible to experience it in my work.
Ultimately, this determines the speed of my painting.
This is followed seamlessly by the next question, which each time has to be answered anew in the abstraction.
How do I know that my painting is complete?
The end of every journey along a creative path gives me this feeling of accomplishment.
„Focused on Visions and Dreams”
2021; 70*100(cm); Acrylic on canvas
Such a picture is “complete” in itself, I keep coming back to it, looking at it fills me up again and again, and the emotion that is reflected in the pictorial language always arises anew in me.
If this feeling doesn't arise, the initial intensity of the viewing fades, the first moment in which I'm impressed, perhaps by the contrast, the style, the structure, follows, the moment in which the connection between the viewer and the picture breaks off and is no longer new arises, this can be an indication that the final balance of colour, style, contrast and center has not been achieved.
The impression left on us by the unfinished abstract painting is fleeting, random and does not allow us to return.
Completion cannot be objectively measured and must be carefully felt by the artist.
Personally, I often experience this as a moment of special clarity and realization, as a moment in which the emotionality that was the starting point for my work has an effect on me from the picture according to the psychological element of countertransference and from the magical moment of viewing it re-enters is triggered to me.
If I speak through an image in my emotional language of reflected abstraction, the image itself speaks to the viewer in a magical moment of interaction and enables the penetration, experience and intuitive reflection of a concrete emotional state.
I reach the finale and a harmonizing crescendo in which abstraction becomes the language of emotional reflection.