Gerdine Duijsens

Gerdine was born in Utrecht (1951) and studied at the Art Academy in Utrecht as well as the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium. Plump ladies and lively scenes. Figurative and abstract elements come together in Gerdine Duijsens' vibrant, colorful palette. She has a distinctive, recognizable style, which can be divided into four main themes: dining scenes, animals, abstracts, and portraits. Her people are bon vivants, sometimes slightly blasé or absurd, arrogant or insecure, cheerful or bored. Her animals are spirited, powerful, dynamic, and swift; her abstracts are captivatingly layered and intriguing; and her portraits have a timeless quality. Her dining scenes have become her trademark, generating a steadily growing group of admirers. Gerdine portrays her figures in unguarded moments with gentle satire, capturing their vulnerable and uncertain selves when they, believing themselves unobserved, briefly attempt to escape from a world where status, knowledge, protocols, and power confine them. Her dining and drinking scenes are created without a fixed plan. Inspired by a color or a feeling, she sees the humorous figures emerge from the layers of paint, waiting beneath the surface. Color, feeling, harmony, and movement define the image. With a sense of humor, Gerdine Duijsens’ work evokes emotion in the viewer. Pure lyrical expressionism. Looking at Gerdine Duijsens' paintings, we see ourselves. There's no resisting it—a smile plays on our lips, a chuckle rises from our diaphragm. This is why we want her canvases on our walls: they tell us something about ourselves. Because they are real.