About Willemien

Colours and shapes form an international language that bridges differences between cultures, and brings people closer together. Art crosses all boundaries and has a healing effect both on the artist and the viewer.

Having lived in the tropics for many years, bright colours speak to me directly. It gives me great joy to allow the colours to interact and play with each other. My style has changed several times as a consequence of all those moves.

In Brunei and Norway I started with watercolours and oils that depicted landscapes and still-lifes. At Central St Martin’s School of Art and the New Richmond School of Art (London), I was taught to work in different media with various techniques. We were also encouraged to paint on unprimed canvas with acrylic paint, flat on the floor, using a variety of tools - including our hands. The subjects became more and more abstract. In David Wiseman's studio I learned to be inspired by landscape and paint in an organic way, increasingly from within. I exhibited with his group, the West London Artists, several times.

In Oman, collage gave an additional dimension to what I do. I taught different classes at the PDO Art Centre. After exhibiting and giving workshops at the Omani Society for Fine Arts I was invited to become a member. The Women's Guild sold cards with reproductions of my paintings.

In Qatar I started doing silk painting and I love the way the vivid colours are absorbed by the silk. All these different techniques have of course influenced the way I express myself as an artist. After exhibiting at Katara Visual Arts Centre they bought my paintings and I joined the Qatar Fine Arts Society after a group exhibition. My work has been reproduced as prints and cards, a series of which were used by the Dutch Embassy for their Eid greetings. They also helped to raise money for the Booster Club at the American School of Doha. A selection of reproductions of my work was sold at the Ritz Carlton Hotel shop and cards at Al-Madina Art Gallery, Muscat.

In 2016 I settled in the Hague, The Netherlands. My studio and art gallery, Atelier Willemien van Eeghen, Breitnerlaan 313, 2596HA The Hague, opened in 2020.

In the past few years, I have been running workshops on drawing, watercolour and acrylic painting and arranged workshops on how to enhance one’s creativity. Before becoming a painter, I took an MA in English Language and Literature with Drama as a second subject. For many years I taught English and Dutch as a second language to people of all ages in different countries.

I was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I am married and have three grown-up sons.