isabella_werkhoven

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Apr 17

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The last minute switch: #painting Star Forest out and #canvas Take Two of The Balcony Scene (Blossom Series) in.

Now on view at Isabella Werkhoven - This Is Not a Solo (Pictura Groningen), until May 3. #contemporarypainting #contemporaryart #artcollector ...

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isabella_werkhoven

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Apr 16

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A video tour (with voice over in Dutch) through the #exhibition This Is Not a Solo - Mise-en-scène of a Memoir @pictura_groningen with @elsahartjesveld @bethnamenwirth @flenferink @simeonnijenhuis @henk.olijve @bloklugthart @paulklemann @geervanderklugt @corinehormannphotography @miedema.hessel @siebedeboer @vittorioroerade @hans_de__wit #contemporarypainting #contemporaryart #artcollector #hedendaagsekunst ...

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isabella_werkhoven

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Apr 13

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Today I came across this painting again in the studio, among other works in progress.
While going through pieces I meant to continue, I suddenly rediscovered this one.

Started in 2019, but never finished.
The title had already been there: Glare.

Seeing it now feels strangely current — perhaps influenced by the memoir-like atmosphere of my ongoing exhibition This Is Not a Solo, and the recently concluded Gronings Licht.

I think I’ll return to this one soon.

50 × 65 cm, acrylic and oil on linen

#contemporaryart #painting #artcollector #fineart #artwork ...

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isabella_werkhoven

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Apr 2

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A detail from an early painting, now on view at the exhibition I curated: This Is Not a Solo - Mise-en-scène of a Memoir in Pictura Groningen

Slow-Motion / 2003 / 85 x 95 cm / oil on linen /

I’ve been noticing how many people respond to this one.

The stillness, and the sense that something has just happened — or is about to — has been central to my work from the beginning.

Hadn’t seen this painting in years before I took it out of my stock for this special occasion. Nice to see it again.

When you’re in Pictura at the show: you can find it in the ‘3D-Chapter’ (‘Chapter’/Room 2 out of 5) of this exhibition as a memoir titled: ‘The 2000s Room’

→ Swipe for the full painting.

#contemporarypainting #figurativeart #paintingdetail #artcollectors #contemporaryart ...

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isabella_werkhoven

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Mrt 30

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The Wind That Shakes The Dune Grass II is now finished — after over a year of work.

110 × 200 cm of acrylic and oil on linen — a landscape that doesn’t exist, yet somehow feels familiar. When I shared details of this painting over the past months, people kept saying it gave them that feeling of being on one of the Dutch Wadden Islands. Which is funny, because I changed almost everything: the composition, the light, and especially the colour — warm, almost Mediterranean, closer to a Renaissance palette than the pale, grey-green tones you actually find there.

The great mullein plants in the foreground do grow on the islands — but not there, and never this tall. A year and a half ago I painted a small version of this subject, and I knew I wanted to return to it on a much larger scale — large enough that you feel you could actually step into it. For a long time the painting hung in my studio nearly untouched, while I figured out how to complete the composition — how much to add, and what to leave alone.

More about what’s coming soon.

#contemporarypainting #landscapepainting #oilpainting #dutchartist #fineart ...

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isabella_werkhoven

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Mrt 24

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A small, early key to the atmospheric, cinematic Cosmic Wood series:

A Hundred Light Years Ago / 2005 /
Oil on paper / 39 × 56.5 cm
Private collection

The first and smaller painting in what would later become the four-part Cosmic Wood series.

It reaches back to the small wood in the text of my 2021 monograph A Book of Paintings — an early image that would continue to resonate through later works.

Now on view only during This Is Not a Solo at @pictura_groningen, on special loan from its owner. A rare chance to see where this series began.

One of the smaller works in the exhibition, but a key one.

>> Only on view through 3 May.<<

#IsabellaWerkhoven #ThisIsNotASolo #CosmicWood #ContemporaryPainting #ContemporaryArtExhibition ...

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isabella_werkhoven

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Mrt 14

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A detail from a large new painting I’m close to finishing.(Some of you may remember an earlier detail I shared on January 1.)

For a moment I thought I might include it in This Is Not a Solo, an exhibition I’m currently curating and participating in. But some paintings ask for a different first encounter.

Rather than rushing this one into view, I’m planning to show it first in the studio, alongside visits to This Is Not a Solo - Mise-en-scène of a memoir. I’ll share more soon.

🖼️The full painting measures 110 × 200 cm and is titled The Wind That Shakes the Dune Grass II.

#isabellawerkhoven #newwork #studioevent #paintingdetail #contemporarypainting ...

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isabella_werkhoven

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Feb 27

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SAVE THE DATE — 22 Mar–3 May 2026 | Pictura, Groningen

This Is Not a Solo — a staged memoir

Isabella Werkhoven | This Is Not a Solo — a staged memoir (mise-en-scène van een memoire) ***
With never-before-shown works and unique re-stagings (1995–2026)

A memory palace (geheugenpaleis) a scenographic journey through image, sound and space.
Paintings, drawings, film, animation and a monumental video installation unfold as one inner script — my work as the axis, alongside @simeonnijenhuis and 15 guest artists. (See pinned comment for all participating @)

🖼️ Image: Early work of mine: De Verwarring | The Confusion (1996) — mixed media / 100 x 150 cm / collection unknown: me painting the view from my studio, snowy winter outside, cuckoo flowers (pinksterbloemen) floating through the landscape.

#ContemporaryArt #ArtExhibition #InstallationArt #VisualArts #contemporarypainting ...

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isabella_werkhoven

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Feb 13

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I can borrow one of these two paintings from the very nice owners for an exhibition in Groningen that I’m curating coming spring: which one would you like to see on show if you had to choose? None of these two has ever been shown on an exhibition.
🇳🇱 NL Ik kan 1 van deze 2 schilderijen lenen van de ontzettend aardige eigenaren voor een tentoonstelling in Groningen die ik cureer komende lente: welke van de twee zouden jullie graag eens op een tentoonstelling willen zien als je moest kiezen? Geen van beide schilderijen is eerder tentoongesteld.
>> Tipje van de sluier: de tentoonstelling heeft als titel:
This Is Not a Solo - Een tentoonstelling als memoires
En daarvoor heb ik nog 14 kunstenaars uit Groningen en de rest van het land uitgenodigd. Binnenkort meer!

🖼️ 1. Snowy in F Minor (Sunflowers nr. 13 / 2012-2023 / 80 x 125 cm / oil on linen/ private collection
🖼️ 2. Cosmic Wood IV / 2009 - 2024 / 80 x 125 cm / oil on linen / private collection
#contemporarypainting
#exhibition #tentoonstelling
#sunflowers #forest ...

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isabella_werkhoven

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Feb 3

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NL: Een paar van mijn schilderijen uit de tentoonstelling Gronings Licht in het museum van Ezinge.
EN: Just a few picks from my paintings on the exhibition Northern Light in the museum of Ezinge. #contemporarypainting #isabellawerkhoven #landscapesoftheinbetween #oilpainting #artlovers ...

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isabella_werkhoven

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Feb 1

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Another subject that isn’t immediately clear at first glance. Viewers have already projected many different interpretations onto this painting — something I always enjoy. It actually depicts an abstracted allotment shed beside the railway near The Hague.

“Four Seasons in One Day” (2022–23) is currently on view in the exhibition Gronings Licht at Museum Wierdenland. Prior to this exhibition, the painting had not been shown publicly.
1. Detail
2. Full view

40 × 50 × 3.5 cm
Acrylic & oil on panel
Private collection

#contemporaryart
#contemporarypainting
#oilpainting
#landscapeinthecity
#artcollector ...

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isabella_werkhoven

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Jan 28

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At first glance, many people cannot immediately identify what kind of object this is.

“Rear View” (2014) shows the back of a waterslide at the outdoor pool where my studio is located — seen in winter, when function dissolves and only structure remains.

What belongs to noise, speed and bodies in summer becomes quiet, almost abstract, once the season withdraws.

The premiere of this work was in a group exhibition at Cokkie Snoei, Rotterdam. Two years later, in 2016/17, it was shown on loan from the owner in my solo exhibition Enchanted at Museum MORE. It is now on view in Gronings Licht at Museum Wierdenland.

Rear View (Pool Slide II)
40 × 60 cm
Oil on linen/canvas
Private collection

#contemporarypainting
#DutchArt
#MuseumExhibition
#landscapepainting
#offseason ...

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