Welcome to Week 47 of Paint Party Friday (Year 2) and to the next edition of our Featured Artist Series! (Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? Please click here for details!) This week's featured artist lets intuition be her guide as she creates her bright, beautiful paintings that are alive with freedom and color. Please welcome Denise "Denthe" Thewissen!
Please tell us a bit about your personal history with painting. (When did you start painting? How has your painting evolved since you first started?)
I started painting in 2004. I have been drawing all my life, but painting was something I considered too difficult to do without having a formal education. So for years I planned to go to art school, because the urge was certainly there, but with my full-time job and then 2 kids it never happened... Until my friend’s hubbie took me to a painting club at his work. He worked for a company that employed disabled people. One night a week they could come to a big studio and do all kinds of crafts under guidance. My friend, who is a gifted artist himself, guided the people who wanted to paint, along with some other people that painted in their free time. So I started going there every week, helped them out a bit, and in the meantime learned a lot just by trying things out and getting great tips from the artists there. And I was hooked! Utterly, completely in love. I looked forward to Thursday night all week. I went there straight after work and painted for 5 hours. It was always too early to go home. It was great fun, getting to know all those people and being able to share my passion. I didn’t know anything about painting, and when I see work from that first period I sometimes cringe…. I learned so much. I soaked up every little bit they could teach me, and experimented with all kinds of techniques. In 2008 I quit my job to have more time for the kids and started to become more serious about my passion. I started going to markets to try and sell things (with varying degrees of success), entered some art shows (with no success at all), and had the opportunity to participate in some exhibitions. In 2011 I emigrated to Australia with my family, and I had to say goodbye to that wonderful group of people. I will forever be grateful to that friend for taking me along, otherwise I’d probably still be dreaming about painting one day ….
The biggest change in my way of painting has been through a workshop I did with Flora Bowley in February last year. Before I did that workshop I always drew something and then made a painting out of it. Now, when I start a painting, I don’t know what’s going to come out of it. I let the painting guide me. It is exciting to see the painting come alive, and gives a great sense of freedom. I still make paintings sometimes that are inspired by a drawing, but generally I just let my intuition guide me.
This is the first painting I made in Flora Bowley's workshop.
What are your favorite techniques, media, and tools to use in creating your paintings?
Acrylics! Definitely! All kinds of acrylics, going from cheap craft paints to the more expensive Golden fluids. I’m an impatient person and I don’t have much time, so when I get to paint I need it to dry right away so I can keep working on it. Favorite tools? My fingers. Something I picked up from Flora’s workshop and can’t do without anymore. I like to paint big, on canvas. Last year I started an art journal, where I try to experiment a bit with different tools and techniques. My absolute favorite medium that I use in there are Inktense pencils. Love the bright intense colors of these. I have a lot of sketchbooks, where I use graphite and colored pencils to make sketches, and thin black markers to make my lyrics-girls and my doodles. I usually do this when I feel the need to create but don’t have the time to work on a big canvas. And, oh yes, acrylic inks in spray bottles (mini-misters) are a favorite too!
my latest addiction: doodle pages...
What is your favorite thing to paint? Why?
People! I need to draw or paint people. I can appreciate abstract art, but I don’t like to make it myself. I love to make a figure come alive. See the different stages it goes through, and end up as a person with its own character and emotions. I love how you can manipulate the different expressions on a face just by a few brush strokes. I almost always paint women. I like the fluid lines, the curves, the softness, the different emotions. And I love to paint birds. Not realistic birds, but birds with bright colors that always seem to interact with the humans on my paintings. I don’t like realistic portraits, I always need to put some fantasy element in there, create a kind of dreamworld.
What is your proudest painting moment and/or greatest painting achievement so far?
That was in 2008, when the painting group that I went to every week held a big exhibition with all the paintings everybody made during that year. There was a couple at the exhibition that were all excited about my paintings. They wanted to buy one but couldn’t choose between two. It took them about half an hour before they decided on which one to buy, and I was over the moon. I couldn’t believe someone would pay that amount of money for one of my paintings, a stranger who didn’t know me. It was the very first painting I sold and I will forever remember it. It made me feel it might some day be possible to earn money doing something that I love.
the very first painting I sold, back in 2008
What's next in your painting future?
I have big plans for this year. I want to go from hobbyist to business and finally make some decent money with my art. I signed up for 2 business courses last year, and am still working through their lessons. It takes a lot of time and energy, when often I just want to paint and create. But I really want to give it a go. I’m working now on setting up my first online shops (with Etsy and Zazzle), and I have quite a few ideas in my head about directions I want to explore. I just finished making my business plan and time-schedule. I also want to start making fabric bags and purses etc... I love to sew, and I want to use (pieces of) my art in my sewing-projects. And I might try out teaching a workshop, since quite a few people have asked me that. I want to spend less time on the computer and more on my worktable. And, oh yes, try to art journal every day ….
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Thank you for your very inspiring interview, Denise... We look forward to watching your business grow!
To see even more of her work, please visit:
Denise also sells her art in The Collective Store in Wynnum and in the Seaside Artists Gallery in Redcliffe (both in Queensland – Australia). More information about that on her website.
**Would you like to be a PPF Featured Artist? (Of course you would!)
Click here for more details!**
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