Artworks by Marjanne Geurtsen (Oosterbeek, 12 -01- 1959)
10.11.2021 – 23.01.2022

Marjanne Geurtsen is a professional artist.

A few years ago, she also started practicing Zen painting style “Sumi-e”. She became the first Dutch student of the International School of Sumi-e of Zen-Buddhist monk & teacher Beppe Mokuza.

The Japanese term “Sumi” means “black ink” and “e” means “painting”. Sumi-e was brought to Japan from China around 1200 (AD) by Zen monks. Sumi-e has always been passed on from teacher to student.

The white surface (the paper) represents the universe and the black ink, the material forms. The vital energy and the everlasting meaning that is embedded in every form are emphasized. By correct body posture and breathing, the brush is controlled, and the brush stroke is set.

The main subjects in Sumi-e are bamboo (winter), orchid (summer), plum blossom (spring) and chrysanthemum (autumn). They represent the four seasons in a year and the four stages of the human life.

Marjanne: ‘I have been visually impaired since I was five; I don’t have sharp vision, nor do I perceive depth and my perspective is distorted.

As a result, I see images and situations literally and figuratively from multiple, different perspectives.

For me, my art is my means of communication. I want to show the viewer that he/she can also choose to see situations in a different way, to appreciate them differently, to feel and act differently.

Freedom: The art of looking from another perspective: observing, painting and drawing from your heart.

Practicing Sumi-e is painting in the rhythm of one’s breath, with concentration and awareness. This powerful energy helps me create other art, such as the charcoal drawings, with the same precision.

I work on such a drawing several days per week, sometimes for over a year.

Education: Artez Academy of Art, Upgraders in Art; Academy of Traditional Arts and Crafts, Courtauld Academy London; Prince’s School of Traditional Art London; Apprentice International School of Sumi-e Versailles.

Marjanne Geurtsen exhibits her artworks both nationally and internationally. And she already gives workshops in sumi-e.”

I paint sumi-e from June 2019. My teacher is the Zen Monk Beppe Mokuza. Sumi-e is important to me to make a connection. In making art, the world around me and myself.

This was my first bamboo: