anja.h.art
Illustrator and visual artist based in The Netherlands
Light and Dark Cities
My mixed-media oil paintings are often focused on abstract and impressionist cityscapes. The paintings are not based or copied from any particular city and are mostly drawn from my imagination. The city fascinates me as a concept, a form of life and a place of interaction. I grew up in Hong Kong which had an influence on the way I paint cities. On the one hand, cities are dynamic spaces that attract people for work, education and better opportunities. While on the other, cities are also places of high competition and stress and hold within them the feelings of oppression of the people. Through my work I encourage viewers to contemplate what it means to live in a city: Do we flourish or do we feel oppressed to live within them? Do we associate them as spaces of light or spaces of dark?
![_]_]____[__[_ (with sig).jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/fb2166_3b77ccf918f44a3babea5bba371ab8a5~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1440,h_1440,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/fb2166_3b77ccf918f44a3babea5bba371ab8a5~mv2.jpg)
Acrylic paint on paper, edited on Procreate
THE ARTIST & THE EASEL
An ongoing comic series showcasing the relationship between myself and my easel (and every artist out there who can relate).
"A while ago I bought an easel that wasn’t exactly great quality, annoyingly. As soon as I put a canvas on top and tried to paint the legs would start slipping and I would constantly have to readjust it (very infuriating).
So to solve this issue I put a pair of my old blue shoes at the bottom which stabilized it and stopped it from slipping …but then… I suddenly thought…“oh shit… it looks as if my easel is going to make a run for it.”
“What if my easel flees with my artwork and my blue shoes? What if it runs in fear of me, or perhaps more understandably, in fear of art?” - for I’ve realized that art is truly a terrifying thing:
The brush, that is the artist’s weapon, is instrumental in conjuring novel realities and thusly deriving any profound truths and questions to all persons who may gaze upon art and may susceptibly be horrified by what they discover.
And the pigmented palette, that is the artist’s shield, is the defender of the creator’s mind. The misplacement of the sharpest brush strokes, of light and shadow on canvas, are all criticisms that quake and emasculate the spirit of the painter. The colours on this shield give reassurance that an added value on the developing artwork may make amends and may alas give peace and protection to the painter’s restless mind.
Together these two instruments aid the manifestation of creativity on canvas.
Now, I suppose, it is quite comprehensible for my easel to fret and despair. For it is a heavy burden and grave responsibility for my easel, or any easel for that matter, to carry the painter’s emerging creation and their precise desires into being.
Regardless, I imagine my easel as a coward for running away, for hoisting the white flag, surrendering, and not confronting me…
No matter.
I shall wear my armor, put on my helmet, flex my muscular buff arms and hunt thy easel down. I will be victorious and art shall always prevail."
anja.h.art
DIGITAL ART
Made on Procreate, Photoshop, Mental Canvas & Garageband (where music plays)
What does oppression sound like?
"What does oppression sound like?" I asked myself that question in 2019 and decided to try and make song out of it. I went onto GarageBand and recorded my own voice in layers. When making the video I thought about Mark Rothko's paintings. I remember standing before them for the first time in London and feeling suffocated -- oppressed. "What if the colours moved?" I thought. I then got the idea to combine the animated colours and the song I made into one.
