Interview | Joyce Groen
Joyce Groen is a Dutch fine artist, currently living in the vibrant capital of the Netherlands: Amsterdam. She started painting at a very young age but became a more serious painter when the pandemic swirled through the world. At that point she came to realization that she wanted to invest more in her creativity, focusing on all the beauty that nature has to offer, her first source of inspiration. Her paintings can be described as realism with abstract, combined with fluid lines and patterns which symbolizes the ultimate feeling of freedom for her. Last Saturday we had the chance to interview Joyce to discuss her oeuvres and talk about it conceptually and technically, as well as getting an overview of the artistic influences behind her work.
Hello Joyce, in your artist statement you refer to painting as a means of meditation and relaxation. Almost all the artists I have met in recent years have confirmed to me that only at work did they feel safe and protected, a parallel life to oppose the chaos of the world. Is this the same for you? And at what age did you discover it?
I’ve been very creative all my life. My mother taught me this when I was younger. We were often drawing, painting, crafting, and so on together. When I was 10 years old, I made my first painting at school which hung in our house for years. Unfortunately, in my high school, little attention was paid to creativity. After this, I went to a sports academy and left my creativity behind. During my studies, I was discovered as a model and I flew around the world for 10 years for various amazing jobs. I have also lived in dozens of places. Think about Cape Town, Miami, New York, Barcelona, London, and Paris. During my work as a model, I felt that I wanted to develop my creativity further, but I didn’t know exactly how at the time. During covid, about 2.5 years ago, I was unfortunately no longer able to travel and I was at home a lot. I saw an old easel in my attic and gave it a chance. I bought some online courses and soon I signed up for the online mastery program at the Milan art institute. Because of my hectic life, I often feel restless and I discovered that painting made me very calm. As you say, I felt safe and it worked like meditation for me. You get into a certain flow that I can hardly describe. It’s just a fantastic feeling. Sometimes I like to isolate myself and work in my own space. But I also feel safe in my environment. My boyfriend, close friends, and family are central to this. I care a lot about valuable relationships, they also give me a sense of security in this sometimes chaotic world.
Could you tell me some about “nature” as your source of inspiration? Are you often looking for contact with nature outside the city to get inspired?
Nature is my greatest source of inspiration. I grew up in the countryside, with a small “animal” farm. We had 5 goats, 30 rabbits, and 1 dog. I decided to go through life vegetarian when I was 7 because nature and animals meant a lot to me. Nature gives me peace and clarity. At the moment I live in Amsterdam, but with a view of a park, I couldn’t wish for a better place at the moment. Besides painting, traveling is one of my greatest passions. I like to pack my backpack and go hiking in the woods for days. Recently I did a 4-day hike through the jungle in Colombia. You see many natural colors in my works, such as green, red, orange, blue and shades of white. Now that it is autumn in the Netherlands, the leaves sometimes color exactly like the color of my paintings. Did you know that I also incorporate things from nature in my paintings? For example, in every abstract work I use sand what I have brought with me from my travels. I collected sand from Cape Town, Italy, and Spain. My slogan is, therefore “Reconnect with Mother Nature” and because I use ingredients from nature, this makes a painting very special. At the moment I am even making a painting in which I use sand from Brazil since the client is originally from there. I want to bring the feeling of nature to everyone’s home, because my deepest desire is living in full harmony, peace and happiness for nature and animals. My last name is the personification for this “ Groen”, which means Green in Dutch.
I love the color palette of the “Earth” series, so natural and material at the same time. How did you start this series and is it something “open” that you will carry on over the next few years?
Nice to hear that you like my series “The Earth” so much! I named this series after mainly the earthy tones that I use. But also, that I incorporate things from mother nature into my paintings. Think of sand, charcoal, and wood. I wanted to give my slogan “Reconnect with Mother Nature” a deeper connection to my artwork. That’s why the idea came to me to combine this with things from nature. I notice that people react very positively to this style. Because I pay a lot of attention to a good color palette and combine this with white and gold, it gives a calm look with a touch of luxury. I can also make a painting extra personal for someone when I use earthy ingredients from a place that is special to them. So yes, I will definitely going on like this.
Which of your paintings has been most important to developing your personal style? I mean, can you highlight a turning point in your artistic production?
The painting “Flow” has been an important part of developing my style. My best friend wanted a painting from me, but however, this was not something I occupied myself with daily. She wanted a painting with a lot of structure, and a color palette of brown and white combined with gold. I sketched an idea and made it to a small size, then I started on my masterpiece. The result was fantastic and she was very happy with it. The whole process, from start to finish, felt so good. I experienced so much joy, happiness, and peace, which resulted in more equal work. Then the idea came to me to add earthy ingredients, such as sand, charcoal, and wood.
Tell me some about what excites you in the world of art today, give me three names in contemporary art that blow your mind.
There is now so much more possibilities than in the past. One of my favorite artists at the moment is Hito Steyerl, who speculates about the influence of the internet and digitalization on the structure of our daily lives. She provides an astute and often humorous analysis of the dizzying speed at which images and information are constantly being modified and disseminated, either ramping up to infinity or crashing and falling apart.
But Banksy also still grabs my attention, an artist who has been known for some time. I think it’s cool and special that he keeps himself anonymous. His artworks are often political and humorous. In his street art, he combines graffiti with a stencil technique that is characteristic of him. Another artist that catches my attention is; Olafur Eliasson. As an artist, Eliasson is best known for his experiments with water, light, temperature, and pressure, with how we experience them and what we see. This is related to spaces, and especially how we react to spaces with our senses.
Most of the artists claim to be original, but looking at the infinite artistic production achieved so far is very hard not to find something mentioned earlier. I know it’s hard to admit, but if you had to choose one artist or an artistic movement, of who would you say, “Well, I took something from him/her, I’m in debit with him/her”?
I get exactly what you mean! Well to be honest, I don’t have a particular artist whom I take things over, I try to stay as original as possible and give my own twist to each work. But I did get inspired by “abstract expressionism”.
Tell me some about your past, how were your beginnings in painting, what do you see when you look back?
In the beginning, I worked a lot with black undertones. Both in my abstract and animal paintings. In my animals I still use this color, but just a little less than before. While in my abstract works, I now work more with white colors.
Is it something you are comfortable with, or would you like to erase some of your earlier works?
Every artist has bad painting days from time to time. One painting gives me goosebumps and the other less so. However, art is a personal taste and someone else may find it beautiful. Sometimes I throw away works of art that I have made that do not meet the quality that I want to guarantee. You have to be inspired by your good works and not by your bad works and accept that this is part of it.
And what about now, what pushes you through your art, what’s the engine power of your motivation?
My main motivations are to inspire people, to create a world with ultimate freedom, and to respect nature and animals. I like to reflect these ideas in my paintings, so I can bring some nature into people’s home. In modern society, we sometimes forget that we are part of nature. I intend to visualize this connectedness in the artwork so we can reconnect with mother nature.
Speaking of promotion, yesterday I saw a very cool documentary about a painter that I honestly don’t love: Salvador Dalì. It was in the 60’s and he declared: “TV is a means of mass cretinization, but it makes me sell more paintings, so it’s ok”. Do you think it’s applicable to Social Media today? Are you frightened by the obvious trivialization of content or do you find it simply inevitable?
I think it’s kind of a similar thing. Although I am sometimes not crazy about social media, for me it is sometimes a fake world, it is a handy tool if you have your own business. You can put yourself in your way, so that people get a first impression of you, it is also actually a free advertising tool. Of course, you spend a lot of time on it, especially since making videos is extremely important. Still, I think it’s great that it exists! You can reach so many more people than before and if you are lucky you can reach a lot of people without having to put your head on TV.
If you could change one thing about being an artist, what would it be?
If I may speak from the artist’s point of view, you often have to deal with real emotional people. It is therefore often difficult to be very business-like, as they often think about the other person. I recently started a business course, which teaches me all the tricks of the trade, giving me more balance in running a business and the feelings that come with it.
Let’s play with time for a minute: you’ve booked a dinner table for 4, and you can invite whomever you want from Ramses II to Billie Eilish. Tell me your DDT, Dinner Dream Team.
Haha well, this is a funny one. Channing Tatum, because he is the most attractive man out there. Gisele bundchen, Doutzen Kroes & Jennifer Lopez because they are huge sources of inspiration for me.
Quick reply. Something you’ve always wanted to do, but have yet to.
Doing a yoga-meditation retreat abroad, for example in Guatemala.
Something you would like to see in this world before dying.
My goal is to see at least half of the world. At the moment I have visited 40 countries and there are so many more beautiful countries in the world. Recently I traveled for 3 months through South America. Patagonia, an impressive natural area is not normally beautiful. But countries such as Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia are also very special. Guatemala and Costa Rica are on my list next year! But I would also like to see that I have become a mother and that my child is happy in this world. That I can leave my daughter or son carefree and look back on their mother with a beautiful feeling.
One overrated and one underrated thing in our daily life.
Sometimes we forget to live more in the “now”. Our modern society is currently developing so fast that we tend to move at that speed. But sometimes it is also good to put your phone or laptop away and live more in the now. Grab a good book, play games, walk barefoot in nature and take a walk on the beach. But on the other hand, now that life is developing so quickly, there is also much more possible than before, which can also be extremely valuable! Like that with an iPhone, you can capture quickly very beautiful things, which are valuable for now and later. But you can also generate electricity through solar panels, for example. I am very curious to see what will be possible in the decades to come. It would be wonderful if, for example, all aircraft could be charged electrically.
What’s next for you? What shows or projects do you have planned?
Next year I have a show planned in Amsterdam. Recently I started collaborating with my first gallery abroad, so this opens up more international opportunities for me.
