MARCELLA van der SLUIS
EDUCATION:
-3rd degree from training-college for teachers, drawing and painting;
Deventer College, The Netherlands
-2nd degree in painting and drawing, Windesheim College;
Zwolle, The Netherlands.
THEMES:
In the eighties I started making little claystatues,
first realistic figures, later stylistic; themes are family,
figures expressing certain emotions.
This is followed by a period of painting flowers and surrealistic themes in watercolour.
In the nineties I discovered acrylic as a very attractive medium.
I select themes in which the human being takes a central part. The technique is almost as transparent as watercolour.
In recent years I often work with a stippling technique.
It is the reason, why painting has become a game and an
experiment for me. I can work on all kinds of subjects, including
abstracts. My work can be characterised as colourful, stylistic, mostly
recognizable, sometimes abstract, not realistic.
MY WORKING METHOD WITH ACRYLICCOLOUR:
A. The translucent method
To obtain transparency, I paint several layers of thin
acryliccolour on a white base (made with gesso). It is similar to
working with watercolour. The texture of the base gives an extra
possibility of letting colours shine through.
The beginning is light and it ends with the dark colours, like working with watercolour.
First of all I choose my theme and make little sketches to start with.
B. The stippling method
Before starting, the work already has a certain colour.
Here too I want colours to shine through the layers that follow.
This is done by stippling with a round brush and by using more or less
pressure. By using stripes of thick paper as a stencil, I bring about
the desired effects and shapes. Also this gives a limitation in making
details.
At the end the colours become brighter and lighter.
MY WORKING METHOD WITH WATERCOLOUR:
Before drawing forms (flowers, figures, ....) I paint
with large brushes several colours wet into wet. Sometimes I make a
basestructure with salt or plastic. The following layers are mostly
painted on a dry surface. Details, depth and darker colours are added
at the end.
