A few years ago, the art emerging from Janine Van Holthe’s studio in the Netherlands took a fresh turn. In combining her painted work with her photography, Janine rose quickly in popularity and became the featured artist of Issue No. 7 of Living the Photo Artistic Life. Her generous contributions to the content in AWAKE have been a huge hit, and her artwork is always an inspiration. I’m excited to bring you this interview with someone who has become absolutely adored in our community …
Q: So! Bring us up to speed — you’ve been an artist for a long time now, right? You didn’t just pick this up last year.
Janine: Oh, goodness no. I started painting on canvas over twenty years ago, back in 1994. Of course, at that time — and over all those years I spent painting — I never would have thought that it would take me where I am now, today. It has been an incredible artistic journey, full of surprises, challenges, and happiness for me. And more than that, being express myself through my art (and increasingly through my digital art) has been a lifesaver to me because of my ever challenging health.
Indeed, for almost 10 years I was able to give art lessons on painting and mixed-media right from my beautiful home studio, and I loved this. However, due to my health problems, I had to give up teaching. I was heartbroken. But then everything changed when I joined the Photoshop Artistry and Awake courses. And I needed that change so badly (and for so many different reasons). I’m just so happy that I came upon it all at just the right time, at just that moment of my life.
Q: Even beyond teaching, you’ve been a working artist for years, selling your canvases. Did that come natural to you?
Janine: Well, selling my painted canvasses has never been easy for me — mostly because I want to keep them all to myself! Sometimes when I do sell one I am often so sorry that I did. (Ha!) It’s crazy, I know, but I can’t help myself.
I am a very impatient artist, always want to try something different … I feel like a butterfly, fluttering from one thing to the next, from one style to the next … and I suppose I just love creating for the sense of creating. If, afterward, I find I have lost interest in a piece, selling it isn’t so hard. But when I love something, when it seems perfect, I have a very hard time parting with it, even if someone wishes to buy it.
Of course, selling my digital art is a different story, because they are prints, not original painted canvases. So that makes it much easier!
Q: What inspires you as an artist, and what’s it like for you to create art?
Janine: I never know where my inspiration will come from, it just hits me everywhere and anywhere. I can be sleeping, walking my dog, shopping, on vacation,reading, it doesn’t matter, it just comes out of the blue.
I never have a plan when I sit down to create. I just start with an image, a photo, a splatter of paint … and then the magic happens. The creative process takes over and leads me off wherever it will. And it always surprises me. And the outcome is never really what I expected.
One thing I do know for sure: I love merging my paintings (or various bits of my paintings) with photography. That’s my ultimate goal for all my digital artistry, to bring those two together. I want my art to be different, unique, recognizable, meaningful, abstract, even figurative.
Lately my work comes straight from my heart. It amazes me what happens with my pieces at this moment, they are more and more coming from a spiritual level. I feel I am translating all my feelings and experiences into something artistic … and then all of a sudden a new and exciting piece emerges.
Not sure if this is going to prove temporary or if I’ve finally found my true path. After searching so long for my own style, my own art, perhaps I have finally stumbled upon where I was always meant to be.
Creating art is an amazing process, and it is fascinating for me to see what is happening in my own work lately. I know that it is making me very happy.
I love to create art, and love to chase whatever my mood asks for — be it dramatic art, happy art, strange abstract art … whether I’m using flowers, animals, landscapes, buildings, elements of nature, clouds, water …
I have lived on three continents — Africa, Europe, and North America — and this has influenced my choice of topics, colors, forms and materials, greatly.
Although, I suppose whatever I create, it HAS to be colorful.
(Yet again, I suppose I also like to create with earth tones from time to time, depending on my mood and the topic. But MOSTLY it has to be colorful!)
Q: Having seen photos of your studio (and it’s truly stunning), I’m confident you will never go completely digital. You’re always going to love painting and mixed media, right?
Janine: Oh, absolutely. It’s all part of the process for me. There’s something about paint … something about the smell of paint even … In fact, not many know this, but I actually mix essential oils in with my paints to create certain moods while I am engaged in my work. When my canvas is done, you can still catch the scent I used. Even with my digital art I love using a diffuser or an aroma lamp with an essential oil to invoke a particular mood. Some of my favorite scents are rose, lemon, sandalwood, orange, petit grain, and lavender.
Q: What’s next? Any ideas on where your work might carry you in the years ahead?
Janine: Honestly, I have no idea what the future holds for me, but living this Photo-Artistic Life, working in my studio every day, painting canvases and bringing them into my digital art — this is really all I want, and this makes me truly happy.