Dorine van der Ploeg studied at the Wackers Academy in Amsterdam, where she graduated in 2015
under the mentorship of Jim Harris.
My work is a result of a constant observation of my immediate surroundings - observing your subject
thoroughly makes you discover that the subject is many times more interesting than the
preconceived image in your mind.
Equipped with a pair of scissors and a bag full of painted sheets of paper, I enter the landscape and
find myself inspired by light, colour, the magnitude of a tree or the dept in the landscape. Forms and
colours together create a representation, in which various snapshots merge into a collage of
observations – particularly visible in the larger works, developed over a period of several days.
The application of the collage-technique leads to a break in the process of working. There is a
moment when I mix my colours and paint the sheets of paper, and a seperate moment when I take
these painted sheets out of my bag and create my composition. Opposed to mixing your colours on
the spot in reaction to what you observe, the sheets of paper that are now being used are not
painted deliberately. And in spite of the vast array of greens, browns, ochres etc. which I bring along
with me, the very colour that I need is always missing.
One could compare it with the writing of a poem with a set number of words. Working with the
means I have at my disposal at that moment, forces me to come time and again to the core of what I
see and leads to surprising solutions and effects in the presentation of it all.