Maria Kuipers

I aim to make paintings that have emotional depth and portray a sense of a lived history, spirituality and mystery. I always aim at being true to who I am in my work. When engaged in making a painting, throughout the whole creative process I trust for content to emerge as predominantly I work without a subject. Each painting is conceived intuitively. I love working with mixed media and using a variety of different materials and tools, choosing what I'm powerfully drawn to at each given moment in time. Surface qualities are important to me as they allude to a sense of depth, equally the relationship between colour and spatial dynamics, but essentially I go with the intuitive flow, whilst considering the structure of each painting until it is resolved. 1990 was a pivotal turning point in my life and when I began painting. In 1998 I graduated with a First Class Fine Art BA, since I've received funding awards and prizes to develop my work and for Community Art Projects, including West Pier Art. I exhibit mainly across South of England in galleries as well as in the 'art and health' arena. Besides the value of showing a finished painting, my personal experience of the creative process, with it's therapeutic value for individual empowerment and healing, has impacted my life considerably. I work as a Peer mentor facilitating Art Workshops for Creative Future with Recovery Collage.