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Hannelore is a painter, teacher and vlogger. Hannelore Houdijk (1975) graduated at a young age from the art academy in Breda and then did a master's degree at the Dutch Art Institute in Enschede. After graduating, she received a starting stipend and has been exhibiting at home and abroad ever since. She has won several prizes, including the national competition 'Painting of the Year 2019'.
In her studio in Nederhorst den Berg, Hannelore makes realistic, colorful and intense paintings, inspired by still lifes from the 17th century. She was looking for a new way to create still lifes while preserving the special atmosphere. After several experiments, she discovered that by placing objects in the water and taking pictures, surprising images were created. The Spiegelplas in Nederhorst den Berg turned out to be the ideal place; shallow and very clear water. Her compositions are distorted by water and light and give the image a dreamy atmosphere. Some parts are recognizable and other parts are abstract. To capture this beautiful image in paint, Hannelore has developed a special way of painting. She calls it 'optical painting'. Where in realism it is customary to paint very finely, Hannelore paints with coarse and fine touches combined, which only become realistic from a distance. From a distance the painting looks like a photograph, but up close you see rough spots of color.
With these paintings, the age-old porcelain art objects and contemporary art are illuminated in a completely new way. The paintings excel in contrasts, such as old-new, small-large, light-dark, above-underwater, near-far and abstract-realistic. As a result, the paintings demand the attention of and interaction with the viewer.