Links

1. Qatar Happening is a monthly magazine (June 2009). The cover features Willemina’s painting, and page 8 mentions the artist. On pages 38-39 the exhibition “Going Dutch in Doha” is covered.

2. The Gulf Times, a daily English language newspaper in Qatar, published an article with a photograph about the opening of the exhibition “Going Dutch in Doha” (15/5/2009).

3. This article in the Qatar daily newspaper The Peninsula announces the exhibition of seven Dutch artists in Doha at the Dutch Ambassador’s residence (10/5/2009).

4. Destinations (March 2007) contains an article (page 10-11) about three artists who are inspired by the people and the landscapes of Oman.

5. An article in the Indian national newspaper The Hindu describes Willemina’s ideas about people’s ability to draw using the book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” (21/7/2003).

6. Artscape is an article issued in a Chennai newspaper in 2003, describing workshops given by Willemina on methods to learn drawing.

7. This is the Poster of the 2011 Group Exhibition "International Artists in Doha".

8. ... of which Willemina is a member.

Reviews

The magazine "Abode" interviewed Willemina in July 2011.

The Peninsula of 5 June 2011 reviewed the group exhibition of International Artisis in Doha.

An article in the daily "The Peninsula" reviews the opening of the exhibition of Dutch artists at Al-Maktab Al Qatari Al Holandi in May 2010.

New Era (June 2008) describes Willemina’s first visit to Doha and what inspires her.

The Oman Mirror, 31 May 2006, review of the exhibition “Colours of Life” by David Solomon:

When four exceptionally talented and multifaceted women get together to exhibit their artworks, the net result is panoramic and brilliant explosion of colours. No wonder the exhibition and the accompanying sessions of workshops at the Omani Society of Fine Arts have been aptly given the title Colours of Life. And the colours at the exhibition are full of life and joie de vivre – vibrant, bursting with energy, full of zest, verve and passion. ... In fact, it is infectious. You talk to these wonderful and creative people for a short while and you feel so good yourself.

Willemien uses all colours and really splashes her canvas. She likes to mix a lot of bright colours and create all kinds of patterns and images by overlaying colours with assorted and varying techniques to create all kinds of dazzling effects. It leaves you looking wide-eyed, amazed, thrilled and overawed. The energy and exuberance in each of her art works is unmistakable, compelling and overpowering. She likes to work mainly in acrylic. “It suits my style and the colours are exceptionally bright”. She also does watercolour.

“I wholly subscribe to the views put forward by American artist Betty Edwards in her book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, that conclusively states that by using the right, intuitive side of your brain you can enhance your level of creativity and ultimately be able to draw more fluently”.

Oman Daily Observer, 28 May 2006, interview by Dr Patricia Groves:

“Colours give me great joy; they really lift my spirit. It is not shape or form which rules my art, but colour. Oman is a land of many colours in striking hues. The brilliant light of Arabia magnifies colour; and, as the light changes through the day, so does the landscape, the architecture and the sea. Colours are like moods, full of different meanings. Our lives are lived in various shades and colours. To encapsulate all this we have called our exhibition “Colours of Life”.

Blue Moon – an evocative name for a quietly spectacular painting. The moon is blue, all blue, on a ground of fiery red, mottled orange and hazed yellow. With varied consistency in paint application and unusual effects, Blue Moon is the kind of painting that compels the viewer to look at it closely. Amid the splattered cosmic dust, I found a tiny star or two etched in red.

“This painting, on unprimed canvas, began on the floor. At art school in London we were instructed not to use brushes, but our bodies, for art is an extension of the body, something that comes from within. I made solutions of different paints, including a special Naples yellow which reflects the light beautifully. I threw the paint out of yoghurt pots at the canvas on the floor. To get a watery effect, I held the canvas under the tap. The blue moon appeared when I made a grand movement with my whole arm... I had not visualized the moon, but there it was – something that felt like a moon, so I made it into a moon and it became the thematic core of the painting. Once the work was well underway I finished it on the wall”.

Willemien has come to believe that “a painting paints itself. The artist is only the instrument. As the evolving painting speaks to me, I instinctively know what to do next. The idea is to listen carefully, to live the painting, to be the paint”. She uses a different technique for her collage work, though the principle is the same.

As we walk along, I admire an innovative art work, Oman Sun Eye, which seems to me like an ocean of mountains sliced in waves. There are shiny surfaces, streaks of gold. The picture seems to be moving.

The arch is an icon in Arabian architecture which Willemien associates also with the Gothic church. It inspired a series of collages with lacey arabesques framed by arches on abstract backgrounds. In one, the architectural elements float in a sky that seems to drift like the sea. Willemien remarks: “The arch is a spiritual shape. It has a feeling of elevation, of airiness”. This leads to a poetic description of her purpose in art. “I walk as in a dream; I become conscious when I write and paint. It is then that I feel a mystical participation in life. As Carl Jung said, the meaning of life is to do joyfully what you have to do anyway”.

The artist’s Oh Moon collage series illustrates this view. In these pieces the moon is full and chalk white; a cluster of palm trees appears as a starkly white silhouette; the mountain chunks are haloed in pale alabaster. Colours are icy in some versions, burning hot in others. The scene comes from the Al-Bustan beach where the moon rises behind an exotic black ophiolite mountain ridge that was thrust there when the oceanic and continental plates collided some 60 million years ago. This is an exciting thought for Willemien: “The bottom of the sea has moved up over the land. I feel very close to that momentous creation”.

Oman Daily Observer, 17 February 2005. Beyond Borders exhibition at PDO, reviewed by Frank Field.

Testimonials

This is the Participation Certificate (in Arabic) to the exhibition in Katara in December 2010.

Alejandro Fogel, workshop facilitator (www.creativityworkshops.com) wrote on 13/7/2009:

I find your pieces very moving and your wide reach of style reveals the breadth of your imagination... I particularly like your abstractions, especially when I can see the texture... I love you mandala collage 2004! Fractured and cohesive at the same time... Really interesting color and texture in Blues 2005... it feels enormous...
I like very much the Arabian Nights series and its layers of fabric and brush strokes. The series depicting the arab lady's shadow is very moving... But my favorites are the Doha silk paintings... Such a deep subdue color... The medium seems right for you...

David Wiseman, Art Teacher, London wrote on 19/5/2009:

Hi Willemina, Thanks so much for sending the pictures. I am really glad you are doing some great work. I recognize those typical Willemina colours and I can see the influence of being in a different country. They all still have that optimistic and celebratory quality they had before.

Jan-Willem Brinkhorst, President of PDO Recreation Club, provided a reference letter in April 2007