Joke Minnaar
Biography
Joke Minnaar, painter.
I was born in Vlissingen (1951), the Netherlands.
Vlissingen is a port town on the North Sea coast. That’s where my love for the sea comes from. The beach, the sea and the blue skies have a big influence on my work.
I was 17 years old and passed my high school exams.
Then I realised that I would no longer be taking drawing lessons, and that I would miss it very much. But I had no choice, I entered a new piece of life.
Not long after that, I heard an inner voice saying: "One day you will paint with oil paint."
I never thought about it again until, 20 years later, to my own surprise, I went to buy oil paint. The day before, I returned from a winter holiday in Austria: white mountains and blue skies. Here at home, the day was grey and wet. It made me sad. On a whim I thought: I'm going to buy oil paint now. So I did.
In the beginning I didn't really know what to paint. My first efforts to create a flower still life and a portrait didn't give me pleasure, and I realised that I did not enjoy painting from reality.
One evening I intuitively got started painting with colours and forms.
That is how my first abstract work arose and my painting career began.
From that moment I continued to paint without interruption.
Artist Statement
I make abstract oil paintings with bright colours and clear shapes, always with oil paint on canvas. Core themes are the beauty I see in the world around me and the connection between visible reality and a reality that transcends it.
The inspiration for my paintings comes from something I have seen, heard or read and that won't let me go. I call it inspiration of the soul. I have to wait for that inspiration before I can start a painting. Then the image emerges that I start working with.
I start with a design, and gradually the painting takes shape and colour. This process repeats itself with every work. So there is a great interaction between what lives inside me and the world outside me. In my work, that becomes a whole. Gradually, I discover what the painting really means to me. The titles refer to it.
I always went my own way in painting. Over the years, my work has continued to develop. The paintings became calmer and the representations increasingly abstract.
The latest development is that the abstract forms come loose; they move freely within the space of the painting. They become independent, as it were, and enter into a relationship with each other. What has remained constant are the bright colours and the pursuit of a balanced image.
I have been lucky enough to be able to create my paintings in complete freedom. As much as possible, I am working in my atelier in the garden of my house.
Painting is my life's work.
The Sun has Just Set, Oil paint on canvas, 90/110
Between Heaven And Earth, Oil paint on canvas 110/90
Transformation, Oil paint on canvas, 110/900
Receiving and Giving, Oil paint on canvas, 110/90
Bastion, Oil paint on canvas, 90/110
In Motion,Oil paint on canvas, 90/110
Highlights, Oil paint on canvas, 90/110
Building Blocks, Oil paint on canvas, 110/900
The Introduction of Red and Purple, Oil paint on canvas, 110/90
It has Begun , Oil paint on canvas,90/110
