Marijke Braaksma
Flowers and Flying Men
Sept 6th to Oct 5th, 2008
Since her first solo exhibition at Nant y Coy Arts two years ago, Pembrokeshire artist Marijke Braaksma, has gone from strength to strength in producing a fine new body of work, deepening the fluidity and symbolic content of her own personal language.
Some 30 paintings are exhibited, many reflecting journeys made to Spain, France, Holland and Scotland as well as her home base of Haverfordwest. Figures, flying birds, flowers, fruits and seeds assert themselves as crucial players within an all-important sense of place; a dreamlike backdrop, frequently defying logic, distortions and exaggerations adding emotional punch. ‘The Vulnerable Bride’ and ‘Halloween in Scotland’ with sometimes awkward goings on, playing with proportions and careering perspectives as in the hazy world of subconscious imagery, her personal inner journey. Frequently generated from everyday experiences, places and people, somewhere along the line, transformation from the ordinary to extraordinary happens, nurturing the images into a life of their own.
Mark making sometimes goes against the grain of reality, keeping fluid and charged, yet in a balanced gritty surface tension. You can experience how she teases, cajoles, even wrenches out images, suspending resolution.
Colour is a crucial element. Working in fast drying acrylic pigments she achieves an intensity and obvious enjoyment in the very substance of paint itself. Keeping one foot in reality – brightest of blue skies as in ‘I Goodbye, I’m cycling in Amsterdam’, she can skilfully control the widest spectrum of colour combinations, without loss of harmony. The content of her risk taking, painterly intelligence and skills marks this out as the most exciting and engaging of exhibitions.
Haverfordwest for the Birds
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