Hettie Tielen

Artist

“To me it is a challenge to portrait people in a very direct way, so that encounter is originated.”

Hettie Tielen

Hettie was born in Boxtel in 1947. From an early age drawing was her favorite hobby. After her studies she worked with young people in Education and later on in Vocational Education. In both jobs dealing with people and reading their body language was a very important part.

Fascination

People are her inspiration and capturing their emotions is a challenge for her. She portays people in paintings that are realistic and quite large. As a viewer one is drawn into the image which creates a sort of inclusion. From artist Marijke Munne she learned a classical way of painting with oils and Mieke Robben taught her loose brushwork to bring more colour and lightenting elements in the skin and the hair.
Nowadays she works with the wet-on-wet technique (alla prima) by which the colours are mixed on the canvas.

Portraits

She paints portraits of people who she has photographed. They are chance encounters that speak to her emotions. They inspire her immenssely in her work. The paintings of African people are an example of this. Also a theme may give rise to paint people's prortraits. The paintings of people looking up came about in this way.