Joke Minnaar
Artist Bio
Joke Minnaar, painter.
I was born in Vlissingen (1951), the Netherlands.
Vlissingen is a port town on the North Sea coast. That's where my love for the sea comes from.
The beach, the sea, and the blue skies have a big influence on my work.
I was 17 years old, and I passed my high school exams.
Then I realized that I would no longer be taking drawing lessons and that I would miss it very much.
But I had no choice, I entered a new phase of life.
Not long after that, I heard an inner voice saying: "One day you will paint with oil paint".
I have never thought about it again until, 20 years later, to my own surprise, I went to buy oil paint.
The day before I returned from a winter holiday in Austria: white mountains, blue skies.
Here at home, the day was gray and wet. It made me sad.
On a whim, I thought: I'm going to buy oil paint now. So I did.
In the beginning, I didn’t really know what to paint. My first efforts to create a flower still life and a portrait didn’t give me pleasure, and I realized that I did not enjoy painting from reality.
On an evening, I intuitively get started painting colors and forms. That is how my first abstract work arose, and my painting career began.
From that moment, I continued to paint without interruption.