Capucines Boulevard Features Artist MarianneB Van Der Haar

about the artist

MarianneB van der Haar was born in northern Germany and lived most of her younger years in the Netherlands. In the early 1980’s she spent four years in Tanzania, East Africa, before returning to the Netherlands once again for a career in interior design. When she moved to the United States in 1993, she discovered her passion for painting and has pursued her unique talents as an artist ever since. For ten years now, MarianneB has been a professional painter, and her work can be seen in many different galleries and expositions around Atlanta, Florida, Nevada and in the Netherlands, Germany and Mallorca. 

The artist says about her work “I started working with acrylic. After a few years, this has expanded to include other materials like oil, sand, copper powder, marble powder, firewood ashes, and textiles. Every time when I work with a different kind of media, the result is always a surprise. I was always very impressed and influenced by a Dutch painter, Pieter Vermeulen. His distinctive style, creativity, color and uniqueness, inspires me to paint my deepest sensitivities and emotions. I am a painter who is driven by inspiration; whatever comes to me, crosses my path in my daily life, and finds its way to the waiting canvas”. 

Fine Art Festival of Ocala, Florida, October 28, 2007. Juried show. MarianneB attended her first juried show during the yearly outdoor festival in Ocala. Over 200 artists attended this well-visited event. Her painting “Bewildered Earth”, acrylic and mixed media on canvas, was honored with the Award of Excellence.

artists' statement

I paint with acrylic, gold, copper, marble, ash, graphite, gold leaf, sand and other non traditional materials, which are collected from many places around the world. The materials are blended together to form the composition in my work. Sometimes paint is scraped away and another layer is applied, so that each layer includes the past and the present. My painting tools are plastic cards, scrapers, paper and vivid colors. My abstract style develops the painting’s story through texture and illuminated surfaces; my belief in a minimal approach makes it a complete story of my feelings and thoughts. I work on instinct and energy. There is a lot of intention as well as accidental discovery in my pieces. My musical tastes are diverse, from Mika to African music. Sometimes, as I work, the music becomes so much a part of the energy in a particular painting that I play the same album over and over again. Nature, music and feelings sustain the mood and flow of the work that I create. MarianneB van der Haar