Monica van Rijn

Monica van Rijn was born in Amsterdam in 1950. She then moved to the United States, where she lived until she was 25. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, with a minor in Fine Arts, from San José State University in California. After traveling for over a year—including trips to Hawaii and various destinations in Europe—she settled back in the Netherlands in 1977.

Monica took painting classes at the Vincent van Gogh National Museum in Amsterdam. She is a highly passionate artist who loses all sense of time and space while painting. She becomes completely absorbed in the act of painting. What remains is a snapshot of a struggle between paint and canvas. A dialogue, as it were, arises between the unconscious and the conscious during the painting process. The influences of her travels, philosophy, and hidden family events find their way onto her canvases, yet without being intrusive.

Although her visual work appears abstract at first glance, there is a suggestion of figuration. Monica’s primary sources of inspiration are people, ancient cultures, and nature.