Marianne van Hest

Marianne van Hest finds her subjects in nature. While in the early stages of her career as an artist she painted desolate, often dark and inhospitable landscapes devoid of any trace of human life, her palette brightened in later years, with blooming shrubs and plants such as magnolias, hollyhocks, or water lilies that take center stage. She sets these floral motifs—through which she depicts the age-old theme of vanitas, the transience and fleeting nature of life—against abstract landscape backgrounds, in which permanence, conversely, dominates. In her series “Reflections,” van Hest plays an ambiguous game with the elements of water, air, and earth. With her rich and refined color palette, she evokes a landscape reflected in water, whose ripples are almost tangible. At the same time, this reflection of reality is an enchanting painterly illusion.