Subtle paint texture close-up

About

About Astrid Stoffels

Astrid Stoffels is a Dutch visual artist. Fictive, figurative abstract landscapes inspired by the primal forces of nature—beauty and violence, vulnerability and indestructibility.

I am fascinated by the primal power of nature in all its beauty and violence, vulnerability, transience and indestructibility. I translate the feelings this evokes in me into fictive landscapes.

The Work

About the work

My work is about the creative and destructive force of nature, and the beauty and fragility that come with it.

I work with oil paint, cold wax, mixed media combined with photography on linen, wooden panels and aluminium dibond. My inspiration comes from special moments and views in my surroundings—in the street and often in the forest—which I capture with my camera. These can be tiny details or wide vistas that stand out because of light, colour, texture, beauty or decay.

The photographs and impressions function as a visual diary and a source of inspiration for new ideas.

Back in my studio I translate those ideas into paintings. I create a fictive landscape that responds to the emotions the original image evoked in me. As a result, the final landscape is often abstracted from reality and floats between figurative and abstract. Sometimes I edit the photographs and incorporate them into the artwork.

Besides my own photographs, news reports and documentaries about nature and the environment are also a source of inspiration. Both the beauty of nature and natural disasters move me and stir something I want to capture—perhaps as a counterweight to the finiteness of life to which humans and nature are subjected. I want to visualise both the creative and the destructive side.

Materials

Materials & Technique

Oil paint, cold wax and mixed media—often combined with photography—on linen, wooden panels and aluminium dibond. Layered surfaces that move between dynamism and stillness, light and shadow.

Portrait of Astrid Stoffels

Biography

Biography

Astrid is a Dutch visual artist. She was born in 1970 in Amstelveen, where she still lives. Her studio is located in the Art Centre in Aalsmeer. After studying Hotel Management, Astrid wanted to go to art school. Because of the premature death of her father she continued her parents’ framing shop. The daily contact with art and artists strengthened her direction and she eventually chose painting, later complemented by photography. She was taught by, among others, Rudi Koegler, Ronald Prent, Maugoisia Sycs, Dirk Annokkeé, Vincent van Oss and Noor Geurts, and followed courses at Royal Talens, MK24 and art coach Manuela Klerkx. She completed the basic photography course at the Dutch Academy for Image Creation.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions & Recognition (selection)

  • Talens Palet Audience Award (2005)
  • Included in the cbk-nh/galeries.nl artist database (2010)
  • Shown at Museum de Fundatie (Summer Expo, Climate Expo)
  • Cobra Museum (Amstelveen Triennial; Amstelveen en Plein Air)
  • Museum JAN (Amstelland — Art 10 Years)
  • Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam; various galleries and art fairs
  • Works on commission; sales in the Netherlands and abroad
Astrids studio in Aalsmeer

Studio

Studio Visits

You are very welcome to visit my studio in the Art Centre in Aalsmeer. Feel free to contact me for an appointment—by phone or via the contact form.

Astrids studio in Aalsmeer