Odilon Redon
Composition: Fleurs
ca 1900-1905
oil on panel
53,5 × 49,6 cm
collection Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede
The connection with the beautiful, all-encompassing nature, the light, the flowers and plants is what extremely fascinates me.
I stand in the light and look closely at the plants and flowers, I crouch and see in the backlight the white, pink and yellow flowers. The flowers speak for themselves in all their universal fragility.
My work is dreamy, playful and concerned with all that blooms and grows and eventually withers and perishes. I capture that with oil paint in muted colours, fluid and transparent, delicate and tenuous. Thinly painted, if not sparse in material use. The skin of the canvas vaguely shines through. I am a sensitive colourist (like the symbolist Odilon Redon was, with whom my work has associations). I like to speak through my paintings about emotions and concentration on what is really of value.
Maartje Frenken, 2024
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdUNpRJWq3brfkeR_cpQipMdQcS9W7brChDJxWrctLWanT3IdyLs_Wt78WFVoLwVgXIaOM12hQodnHWMrKaNbrNO9uMCIrRLvU5uqpbvCgb7HkDecfLIFwChgFzyEUvyk2Do2Bw3XSrkTAbxwx6rhoyHkiN3yXP0iZ1JF-Er-u4ac9Th3veb15lrHJf-vb/w422-h640/Maartje%20Frenken%20_MG_7314.JPG)
Maartje Frenken
De rode draad
oil on canvas
120 x 80 cm