Acerca de
Bio
Diet van Velzel’s general take on art is light-hearted but nowadays harsh reality more often creeps in. Her main subjects are: human figures and mild caricatures, the big city and big structures, flora and fauna, and lately, in a more abstract way, destruction plus a measure of ‘repair’. Her style changes from figurative to abstract, and from taut lines to a loose touch. The use of materials likewise varies. On the basis of her subjects she works on an number of ongoing series which sometimes overlap.
- Her ‘little scenes’ (in pen-watercolour) with mild caricatures belong to her most readily accessible work. Diet takes mankind, and herself, very seriously, but then again she doesn’t, at all.
- Urban settings are explored in bigger, half-figurative pieces in acrylic or in mixed media, like part collage. This leads to images of fantasy cities, and then of impossible geometrical structures that often reach precarious heights. Connected with these are images of deep gorges that are hard to jump across.
- Landscape and nature, especially trees, are also a recurring theme, but here too you will often find a fictitious approach to highlight a certain aspect.
- Global reality has contributed to the development of the series ‘destruction and repair’. For this series canvases are ripped and often, not always, ‘repaired’ with the help of button thread and glitter. Drawings, collages and drawings also deal with topical themes.
Diet van Velzel was coached by a number of Rotterdam artists and visited the Trier Art Academy. In the past she majored in comparative literature and taught English. She wrote two children’s books, the lyrics for a CD with children’s songs and a collection of twelve tales. She may publish another book or she may not.