Transience is the principal theme in Marijk Gerritsma’s work. Her motive in approaching this theme is “houses in relationship to the landscape”. The “Nordic houses” are a part of her most recent series. The interest that the artist has developed on this subject came about in Sardinia where whitewashed barns, abandoned houses and sheep sheds adorn the rugged landscape. The bareness of these dilapidated quarters, standing out as shelters against the horizon really appeals to her. On her canvases, Gerritsma strips her houses of any redundant details.
She just wants to depict space and perceives the potential of the internal arrangement within the area of the canvas. In the series that have evolved in this way the artistic aspects such as form, framework, composition, use of colour and light are central. Her decision for neat, orderly and lucid compositions without any superfluous detail contributes to the total experience of these spaces.
Education: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
