Paintings by Hanneke Naterop a Dutch Painter.

From the Brush of Artist - I am Hanneke Naterop a Dutch female painter. As long as I can remember I have been painting  and drawing. As a young child I was drawing portraits of all my relatives and friends. Curious how to capture what I saw.

I went to Art academy studying everything but portraits. After 6 years of travels and the birth of my 2 children I picked up drawing and painting portraits, I just couldn’t resist the beauty of my 2 sons..

Lots of studies and commissioned portraits followed and I loved doing them always looking for the deeper layers that are present under the  surface. This I did by studying on tone, colour, texture, brushstroke. Later I added a fascination for people in relation to space around them.The more I allow the painting to just happen to me, the more I seem to find the language to describe something of the essence of who I am.

 "THE WAY I WORK IS TO OBSERVE IN DEEP CONCENTRATION WHAT I SEE AND TRANSLATE INTO PAINT. THEN LOOK FOR PERFECT BALANCE AND HARMONY, BUT ALSO LEAVE ROOM FOR MIRACLES THAT HAPPEN ON THE WAY. A HINT OF MYSTERY WILL BE ALWAYS PRESENT IN MY WORK, AS LIFE IS A MYSTERY IN ITSELF. I AM ABSOLUTELY INSPIRED TO CREATE MY VISION OF THE WORLD AROUND ME. I JUST LOVE PEOPLE WITH THEIR INNER AND OUTER BEAUTY, SO PAINTING PEOPLE IS A BIG THEME FOR ME. THE QUESTION HOW TO DO THIS; TO CAPTURE THE TONES, MOVEMENT, SPACE, SKIN TONE, COLOUR AND ESPECIALLY LIGHT CHANGES ALL THE CHANGES ALL THE TIME."

I was honored by the text Alan Katz wrote about my work in his blog: Painters Who Just Painted While The Art World Burned. I think he very well captured the essence of my work so I will share this with you here:

Hanneke Naterop

"A color is as strong as the impression it creates." Ivan Albright

"All colours will agree in the dark." Francis Bacon

"You would hardly believe how difficult it is to place a figure alone on a canvas, and to concentrate all the interest on this single and unique figure and still keep it living and real." Edouard Manet

Keeping a figure or face living and real in a portrait demands a talent beyond merely duplicating what we see. Each painter takes their own road to achieve that , but they would mostly agree that working from life will give life to the portrait ,and a soul, that working from photos denies. Copying photos or using them for source to interpret is almost always better when the painter comes to it with a deep background in working from life. From life we learn to understand the subtleties of light, color , and form. We learn that multiple sittings brings out a deeper understanding of the personality and soul of the model. We learn what is missing in the photo. But seeing is always a form of interpretation and what we see is our own unique view. For some , what is seen is a distraction, that needs to be simplified to see what is important. Sometimes reducing the colors to a limited palette will help to create contrast and focus. For Dutch painter Hanneke Naterop, the world she sees is of limited organic earth colors that act as a stage for primary color accents to perform. She uses the basic tonal earth color underpainting of light and shadow, as a finish, that brings rich visual content to the subject. Naterop is a portrait painter who reaches into her subjects for what lies beneath the surface. Even her commissioned portraits are never satisfied with mere likeness. Whether painting children or adults, she stamps her work with a desire to portray the human condition as a meaningful portrait.

In her scenes of people in cafes or bars , she again reduces the scene to an essence that promotes light, shadow and limited earth tones setting off color. 

Hanneke Naterop echo's the traditional technique of the past, with her feet and mind planted in the present.

For more of Hanneke Naterop Check the links below.

http://www.hannekenaterop.com/

https://www.behance.net/hannekenaterop

http://www.advancedvisionandart.com/naterop-hanneke.html

http://hanneke-naterop.blogspot.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnIu8Ewglns

All Images are copyright by: Hanneke Naterop

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