I Bought You Flowers

I Bought You Flowers
Eline Martherus
9 Sep – 6 Nov 2022

The artworks in the debut solo exhibition I Bought You Flowers by artist Eline Martherus are characterised by the balance between light and dark, the appearance and disappearance of colours and shapes, with the colour indigo as the central point.

Eline studied Fashion & Design at the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI) with a specialisation in textile innovation. After this, she worked for five years as a designer for several major fashion brands. Through her then employer, she came in contact with indigo, the plant and the pigment. “I became fascinated by dyeing fabrics with natural pigmentation.” She started dyeing pieces of hand-woven fabric in her mother’s bathtub. Painting became Eline’s new creative expression, with the freedom she previously missed in the setting of a traditional work week.

Without a preconceived plan and with materials such as brooms and brushes, Eline creates canvases full of movement and feeling, often on a large scale. In each work there is a coming and going of organic forms; sometimes clearly present in energetic hues of blue, other times very delicate, as if the paint seems to settle into the canvas like a water stain. The viewer can also find sacred geometric shapes in her canvases: “Everything in nature can be traced back to these shapes, just like that indigo symbolizes the blueprint of humans.” A sense of spirituality.

Eline draws her inspiration from people and their role in society: “Perhaps I translate it somewhat abstract, but it is about the dynamics between light and dark, about the appearance and disappearance of colours and shapes, just as it is the case with people and situations.” Eline hopes that the viewer will explore the boundaries of intention and the opposing forces of logic and intuition with her.