Charlotte Molenkamp

Charlotte Molenkamp (1955) studied at the St. Joost Academy in Breda and then attended the Art Academy in her hometown of Tilburg. She is the daughter of the well-known painter Nico Molenkamp. Molenkamp spent her childhood at the Koningshoeve, where she grew up in an environment focused on the visual arts, closely connected to nature, silence, and the changing of the seasons. Charlotte Molenkamp has charted her own course. At most, the fertile ground of her immediate surroundings has presented her with a choice regarding her artistic possibilities. And it is a testament to her great self-awareness that she has entered into a relationship with painting on her own terms. Molenkamp first made her independent debut with an exhibition at the municipal theater in her hometown in the spring of 1982. She primarily paints gouaches and oil paintings. I’m actually left-handed, but I’ve learned to use my right hand as well. It doesn’t take any effort anymore. In fact, I work with both hands at the same time, because for me, painting is activity number TTn; the story follows naturally. In my right hand I hold a palette knife, and in my left, my brush—usually a flat, wide brush, a spalter. I’m constantly breaking things down and building them up; someone once asked me, “Don’t you do any preliminary studies?” To which I replied, “The preliminary studies are all underneath!” Charlotte Molenkamp’s work is included in numerous important collections, including that of the Royal House.