A terracotta pot filled with tiny white-faced violas
marks the start of the ascent to the first floor house in multi-toned redbrick,
in the Korreweg neighbourhood of Groningen.
Tripping lightly up similarly coloured brick steps, I pull on the brass bell
handle and wait. The door is opened by Roos van Pagée, bronzed by the sun and
recently returned from her holidays in France. A slight figure, dressed in
a light black shift dress, dark locks of hair tumbling past her shoulders.
Momentarily embarrassed, she admits that she thought that our meeting was next
week, but invites me in anyway.
She leads the way into an open plan living room,
stylish in its décor; walls covered with artwork, that of her own and other
artists. Before we head up another flight of stairs, drinks in hand, to her
studio, her son: 10-years-old, denim shorts and green and white striped T-shirt
wistfully asks if he can take the baby guinea pig out of its cage, a new
addition to the household. “Later” is the reply.
The space upstairs, is a large open plan area, half
serving as a bedroom the other half a studio. Flooded with sunlight, white curtains flap
idly in the opening of the balcony doors and in the middle of the room there is
the most enormous and stunning ornately carved, Indonesian bed, raised high off
the ground on four sturdy wooden legs, so that you really have to climb up into
it. Turning left, we enter Roos’s studio; two enormous canvases each several
metres across of work in progress, flank the room: figurative, life-like,
ethereal in colour and experimental in composition, both exuding a calm similar
to their surroundings. Water-based oils are Roos’s preferred
medium; she likes their oily consistency, the long drying times and resulting
movability of the paint.
Having viewed her website I am curious as to where
Roos finds her inspiration. She has her own personal twist on reality from
which she draws in order to realize her creations. Like most artists she is
influenced by her own experiences, as well as the world around her. This she
uses as a base, but feels that her work should also encompass the intangible
too; it should pass the realms of ‘the ordinary.’ As she says:
“When you enter the realms of imagery through
emotions, as opposed to reality, you enter a world that cannot be described
bywords.”
Her figures come to life through reference to photos
made of people she has asked to pose for her; they are realistic in skin tone
and facial features, but the poses are unusual. A model may lie with her head
close to a table surface, whilst another, sword in hand and dressed for
fencing, has a stabbing duel-like stance. This is then furthered by the
inclusion of the esoteric, in the depiction of beautiful materials and colours,
but she says, the trick is to make sure that it doesn’t become too superficial.
A particular series, Meisjes van Verkade, which caught my eye, is where it is not just
one female figure that occupies the canvas but two (and occasionally three).
The figures are mirror images or twins, with maybe one tiny discrepancy that
one figure will be looking out at you whilst the other looks away. The reason
for this Roos explains that there is more of a universal dimension in two of
something as opposed to one:
“With two there is more than one…as a result of this
it can continue living on without me…also, the two of them have something in
common with each other.”
Initially, Roos trained to be a creative therapist as
a back up to the Art College Aki she had followed in Enschede, which meant she
was also qualified to teach. Finding that she was never able to get down to her
own work, she left employment in the former in favour of giving lessons in
drawing and painting. This she still continues to do for small groups, some of
which take place in her studio.
So far this year, she has exhibited in the library in Groningen and has several
up and coming exhibitions in the Province later this year. She has a very
distinctive illustrative style, which has meant that she has come in the top
twenty-five people, four times in a Belgian, kid’s book illustration
competition; the book has yet to be published.
When it comes to the art market, she finds the German
market the best. There people are more prepared to pay for artwork,
particularly when a recently purchased house needs re-styling.
If money was no object she would like to have a
second, very large studio, preferably in a beautiful land by the sea and
continue as now, painting.
If you’d like to see more of Roos’s work go: here
© Alison Day
First published in the Connections magazine #33 Autumn 2011
Read & download issue here
