expressionist artist Tanja Koelemij

Blog

March 2024

Zaterdag 23 maart 2024 ben je heel erg welkom op de opening van mijn expositie "Bloemetjes en Afkomst" in de Stadsschouwburg Velsen! Er zullen zo'n 14 schilderijen van mij te zien zijn. Zes daarvan zijn echt spiksplinternieuw en geïnspireerd op de bloemstillevens uit de 17de eeuw.

Starting the 23rd of March you are very welcome at my exposition at the theater of Velsen!

February 2024

With this commission piece the buyers asked me to use specific colors, terra and blues and greens to match the colors in their house. Terra is/was not a color I used a lot before but I will from now on! I'm happy with the result and luckily the buyers where too!

January 2024

I was asked to be the jury for "stichting Terpetijn" our local painting and drawing association. Such much talent, so much fun to do!

August 2023

I asked to draw all the dreams and concerns off the neighbours for our local Theater, in the end it was so much fun to do, I will hand over this big illustrationboard coming Monday!

Also coming Sunday 20th of August (2023) you can see my (flower still life) again on the livingstylist Dutch tv program "VTwonen, weer verliefd op je huis". Happy and proud!

June 3+4 (2023)

Group expo/open studio in "Raadhuis van de Kunst", Velsen-Zuid, Noord-Holland, Netherlands on the 3rd and 4th of June! Also joining the group expo with one piece in Velserbroek, Mandenmakerstraat 13-15!

You are welcome, we are open from 12.00 hour till 17.00 hour. As for myself, I will be painting away in "Het Raadhuis", and I would love to talk to you and I'm open for commission!

May 2023 Group EXPO Lisse

This month May untill the 13th of June I will join a group expo in Lisse, Koninginneweg 8. The expo is organised by "Kleurenpracht" in combination with "het Zwarte Tulp Museum" in Lisse https://kleurenpracht.com/. I will be attending myself (and paint) on the 12th of May, you are welcome to come and watch for yourself!

Zelf ben ik bij de galerie op 12 mei van 13.30 tot 16.30 uur aanwezig, Koninginneweg 8 in Lisse, ik ben van plan om daar ook te gaan schilderen, als je leuk vindt, kom langs!

April 2023 Movieset pictures

Today I recieved some beautiful pictures from the movieset and can I reveal the name of the Dutch cinema movie. The name of the movie "Ik zal zien" it will come out in 2024 and I can't wait to go and see it!

April 2023 "In de movies"

Sooo, I have some great news I would love to share but I can't! To is to say, I can a little. But I can not name the movie until its official release date. Anyway, some of my dune paintings will be used as decor in a movie which will be shown in the Dutch cinema (summer 2024). The story of the movie is situated along the Dutch coast. As soon as I can tell you more about it, I will, can't wait!

March 2023

I have worked on this flowerlandscape painting for an art contest in #museumdezwartetulp in #Lisse #museum. This museum is located in the heart of the flower fields in the #bollenstreek #tulpenveldenin the Netherlands and is, of course, all about the flowers.

I've tried to keep it loose and light. And I have tried to think of what spring feels like for me. Looking forward for the days to belonger and lighter. And to see this in real life again!

For the result of the contest will take an other month, 50 paintings/photos/digital works will be picked to hang in the museum. Fingers crossed!

February 2023

Yesterday I recieved a mail from the Mauritshuis (museum) with some great news!:

"Dear Tanja Koelemij
Hurray! Out of an overwhelming number of entries from all over the world, our jury has selected your Girl as one of the winners, which means it will be shown at the Mauritshuis for a whole week! If you submitted more than one entry, one of them has been selected for the presentation.
From 6 February to 4 June My Girl with A Pearl will transform our Vermeer Room into an ode to Girl with a Pearl Earring. We have chosen 170 artworks for the digital frame, where each week ten different creations will be shown on a loop. So congratulations again: your entry is one of them!"

January 2023

In 2023 I will start to work with 2 galleries, one in Amsterdam www.beeldendgesproken.nl and (most probably) one in Chicago. More details will follow in the NewYear. Unnecessary to say I'm really looking forward to this! I would love to just focus on painting and not the business side of things, this will certainly help a lot!

December 2022

Taking inspiration from "the Girl with the Pearl Earing" by Johannes Vermeer, for www.mauritshuis.nl/ontdek-collectie/kunstwerken/670-meisje-met-de-parel/https://strato-editor.com/.cm4all/widgetres.php/com.cm4all.wdn.PhotoGallery/images/thumbnail-gallery.png

Feeling connected. Did I ever mention that my far ancestors are from Delft as well (mu great-great-great grandmother and her family) ancestors?

November 2022 On Dutch tv

Wonderful, my work was picked for the interieur home make over television program "VTwonen weer verliefd op je huis" for national Dutch tv. It was a print of my original painting working with the website www.werkaandemuur.nl. And it still lookes like a painting.

The funny thing was when hanging it on the show, it was so crooked, that is just so very familiar to me, it happens to me al the time, I even have problems at painting strait lines! Anyway it was all solved in the end and the couple looked pretty happy.

November 2022 On the Easel

Movement in dunepainting 120cm x 80 cm

Movement and brushstrokes in a painting is always something that catures my eye. There is something in there that works on my emotions. That moves me and cann't be controlled. I try to use that in my work. You are very welcome to see it for yourself on November 5+6 and 12+13 in my studio in Velsen Zuid (Noord-Holland), I'll be joining the expo of "Kunstlijn Haarlem".

October 2022 Commission piece

A little commission piece, 20 x 20 cm of the city of Haarlem (city in the Netherlands-Europe). It's the "Gravenstenenbrug" meaning bridge. Haarlem is the city I know so well and use to live.

I always like to make my work look like a sketch, I just like how, in that way, it feels much more open. And in a way lighter. For a little piece like this, I think it's just a lot harder to reach that same effect. It's probably because I work mostly with acrylics and the less you use the quicker it dries!

Anyway still, happy with the out come and luckily my client is too!

September 2022 On the easel

Painting away in my studio. Making a serie of flowers in several sizes, open for commission!

September 2022 Walldecoration in the collection IXXI

Welll....didn't make it all the way to the van Gogh Museum in the contest but you can find my work in the collection of IXXI. Van Gogh keeps beeing a great inspiration!

https://www.ixxi.com/nl/wanddecoratie/tanja-koelemij-pollard-willow

https://www.ixxi.com/nl/wanddecoratie/tanja-koelemij-tulips-ii
https://www.ixxi.com/nl/wanddecoratie/tanja-koelemij-tulips

August 2022 Still thinking about Vincent, trying not to forget about me!

What if van Gogh, while living in France, would have painted tulips? What would that have looked like? Since I didn't want to copy to much I've tried to build on this idea. I know back then the tulip wasn't as common for the public. And that part of the attraction for van Gogh was that he found beauty in everyday things. But what it was?

The combinations of all that yellow, turned out to be quite the challenge for me. But I've found it so interesting to study and to make. While van Gogh has always has been a wonderful inspiration for me, this time I looked at his several sunflowers hundred of times closely. Trying to still express that strong link with van Gogh's work.

For my landscape painting with the willows, I also looked closely at several pieces of van Gogh. For my landscape I looked closely at a less known sketch of van Gogh's willows (with strong horizontal lines), Starry Night and Starry Night over the Rhone. Also his wonderful painting Terrasse du café le soir, Place du forum was in the back of my mind. This piece has always made an impression on me. Probably not so incidentally I have used this idea many years before when I made several paintings of the night at the cafe downtown where I've meet my husband.

July 2022 work "Seascape, new beginning" selected

My painting "Seascape, new beginning΅ has been selected for the theme "Blue" by the site "Oh my prints", feels always great to have been picked! https://www.ohmyprints.com/de/album/Landschappen/49825/49692

July 2022 Challenge

I have been hard at work in my studio. The right painting is finished (sold right away, happy with that), hard at work on the left piece. Looking for those colors and movement. I might turn this one in for a Vincent van Gogh Challenge. The assignment is to make a new work with is based on a work of van Gogh. So I thought to myself what it would have looked like if Vincent would have painted tulips instate of sunflowers. Of course van Gogh has always been most inspirational for me but to actually copy him is turning to be impossible because it's like changing my handwriting, I can not! So doing the next best thing! But I'm also making an other painting for this challenge, a landscape, once that piece will be a little further along I will post pictures.

25 and 26 June 2022

For 2 days I will be one of the painters on Haber Festival IJmuiden, (Trawlerkade, IJmuiden, the Netherlands). This festival is all about fish, art and cultuur so I hope to feel right at home! More info on these festivities you can find on www.havenfestival.nl.

On the easel. Painting away!

4,5,6 June 2022

You are invited to visite the first "Kunstroute" (art route) on 4, 5 and 6 June 2022. The are several gallery's, studio's and art locations in Velsen (Noord-Holland, the Netherlands) who are participating on this route. If you like to see my work, it will be shown on Raadhuis van de Kunst, Torenstraat 7, Velsen Zuid.

For more information please visit www.beeldendkunstenaarsvelsen.nl

May 2022

Working on this bigger piece in my studio. I'm using a picture of the dunes near the place I grew up. It feels like a good place to let emotions go. It's a bit of a mess but is my mess!

I'm sure I will work on it some more tomorrow, I will probably put paint on a big piece of the work and again use the wet in wet technique to hopefully give it even a better flow.

Studio April 2022

Guess where my new art studio is going to be, doesn't it look amazing!!

I will be sharing this wonderful space with 7 other artist in Velsen Zuid in Noord-Holland (in the Netherlands). The name of the place is called "Raadhuis van de Kunst", it used to be the old City Hall of the city of Velsen. Starting the month May, I'll be moving in.

Foodpainting April 2022

I've lived near the sea my whole life. I'm not that aware of it but when I'm away from the beach, I miss it. With my food paintings, next to breakfast, fish and shellfish are my favorite subjects. I think my enthusiasm for it must show, because these are one of my best selling pieces. This month I have made 2 new paintings, one crab, and the other, a lobster, which I'm still working on. I'm going for bright colors and I think the work should be painted in thick layers with a quick brush, so the movement shows. Just a moment in life captured forever.

Commission Portret February 2022

Commission portret 60x60 cm

"Twin painting" January 2022

I have started to work on a little commission piece. One I'm really enthousiast about. This client bought one painting and then decided she would like an other, fitting painting to go with the first. Together with the client we designed the second painting, all by email and sending each other pictures with ideas.

The right one is the finished painting, the left one is just a colored sketch, just to be used as an example. And unfortunately the table is not visible in this picture. I'll place a picture of the finished piece when it is finished, maybe even on her wall!

Portrait on commission December 2021

So I´m a maker off landscape and still life but still I do other work as well. As a matter of fact I have done many, many things. I have worked in decor on windows with clay. And for a period of many years I have mostly painted buildings. Still all in expressionisme. Now I have agreed on a commission of a portrait... I will show you soon!

Commission piece Tulips November/December 2021

Working on a commission piece in my little studio. This painting has the measurements of 70x90 cm. This painting has been picked my client to recreate an (original) other painting of mine. The original piece is a lot smaller but I love working big. A bigger piece needs a bigger movement in brushstroke, I think that is great to do. But this piece will be a little different than the original. So not an exact copy. It will be hang in a group other paintings which will include an other work of mine. My client told me she wants a little of my "gekkigheid", I guess it translates in that she wants a little of my craziness!

I'm showing you the process and my search. I start but then change everything! For me that has never not happened, so totally normal!

Start: It needs more blue in the vase and more yellow or ocher in the painting. And maybe one more tulip but I'm pretty happy withe the result so far.

Second: Changed everything!

30 August 2021 website Dutch Artsy Souls

I recently joined forces with "Dutch Artsy Souls", a great Dutch artblog and shop. Thank you Kristin! https://www.dutchartsysouls.nl/nature-art/

26 August Werk aan de Muur

The websites "Werk aan de Muur" and "Oh my prints", which sell photos of my paintings", put me in the spotlight, find out more on https://www.werkaandemuur.nl/nl/expressionistische-stillevens-van-tanja-317155

5 July Gallery

One of my paintings was bought by a gallery in China. I've shipped it out and this piece will be arriving in China later this week or in the beginning of next week. I hope they will like it!

6 June 2021 New owner

This (older) work found great new owners this week, happy they are happy!

25 May 2021 Expo Het Volkshuis Leiden till June 12

Because of Covid 19 restrictions my expo in "Het Volkshuis Leiden" (in Leiden, the Netherlands) was closed, now it's open again and you can see 25 of my pieces until the 12th of June!

27 March 2021 Sold and making a new!

The left piece "Spacious" ("Ruimte"), I made 3 weeks ago and sold 2 weeks ago! Inspired by this and the attention it got because of the online gallery of the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar I started a new! Well I'm not there yet but just wanted to show the proces. I will continue till I find that balance!

15 March 2021 Sold!

Always great to sell work, these pieces went abroad to Italy, I hope the buyer will enjoy them!

Raising money (March 2021) A friend of mine, Alida van Leeuwen, is always helping artists and now she is helping to organize raising money for the ALS foundation. I just think she is so wonderful for doing so and I was happy to donate a still life to this initiative. I hope the foundation will collect a lot of money which will help the people with this decease. More info on(https://www.kunstvoorals.nl ahttps://youtu.be/ND25ak679gc

At Work Happy to work on commission on a 70x90 cm canvas for a Dutch client. They told me they will hang the piece in the kitchen. Good fit! Though the clients have picked it because of a previous work I had made I'm still making it one off a kind. Let call it painting in series! Now lets hope they will like it!

Sold! Of course I'm always happy with commissions or to sale work, especially when they get such a beautiful place in Italy in a new home!

February 2021 On the FB page of Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar Yesterday my work "Ruimte" (meaning "Spacious") was picked for the online FB page of the expo of the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar. My work with black and white cows in the field I had only finished earlier that very same week! The expo of the Museum "Weids" (meaning Wide) is all about showing landscapes of the north west of the Netherlands (landschappen van Noord-Holland). My work is the one of the 2 paintings picked between a whole lot of pictures! www.facebook.com/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar/photos/a.3599690883399430/3709941802374337

Expo at Volkshuis Leiden I'm happy I was invited to show 40 pieces of my latest work at Volkshuis Leiden (in the Netherlands). This expo started in November 2020 and will last till the end of January 2021. Of course you are welcome to come and visit. Please check the openings hours and the rules about the Coronavirus regulations on the website of the Volkshuis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRLh_Wrbiso&ab_channel=BplusC

Prints

For prints etc in the Netherlands please go to https://www.werkaandemuur.nl/nl/beeldmaker/Tanja-Koelemij/49825

In Germany please visit https://www.ohmyprints.com/de/kuenstler/Tanja-Koelemij/49825

In France please go to https://www.ohmyprints.com/fr/artiste/Tanja-Koelemij/49825

Prices original paintings

All the paintings are original designed and made by me. See anything you like? Interested in other measurements?

Please send me an email or a DM

Painting adventures

I really started my painting adventures many years ago when I first experimented with many, many (many, many) forms and styles of painting and drawing. I mastered several techniques but was it interesting enough and what was I trying to say? I always was passionate about my work and I was fortunate enough to expo my work in several galleries. But later I stopped painting for several years. I felt I was working to forced searching to hard. Two years ago I started again, this time I try less to worry what other people might think of my work solely focusing on my passion!