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Game Of Checkers
Checkers Artist
Genevieve Van der Wielen
Geneviève Van
der Wielen 1954 to present day,
Verviers, Province of Liège
Belgium.
Jeu de Dames
The Checkers Game
- She (Geneviève Van der Wielen) was raised in a bourgeois family
and received a strict, conservative education.
- From 1972-1975, Van der Wielen studied
art at the Institute Supérieur
des Beaux Arts Saint-Luc or the Academy/Higher
Institute of Fine Arts at Saint-Luc; in
1978, she was the recipient of the Darchis
Bursary which allowed her to study Romantics
in Italy for three months.
- Van der Wielen is an original and talented
artist who has developed diverse techniques
in a variety of media such as oil, pastel
and acrylic as well as drawing in monotype
black and white which allows her to give
her themes a great deal of flexibility
and an overall soft touch.
- Van der Wielen draws by instinct and
intuition, using no models as inspiration.
“I begin with
a blank piece of paper and then I will draw
from my head and erase until a picture magically
evolves. The story and ideas evolve out of
the design. It is not pre meditated. I do not
use models. I take that drawing and I make
a painting out of it. I allow the flaws to
remain and above all, I strive to “be
myself” when I paint. My art does seem
to flow out now…after years and years
of struggling and practicing the craft.”
Artist Geneviève Van der Wielen creates her imagery from an independence
loyal only to her own beliefs and talents and
claims no affiliation with any particular school
of artistic thought or style.
- The inspiration for her artistic themes is drawn from her own life
experiences and from observation of the world around her; her motifs
display both the beauty and ugliness within people, strengths and weaknesses
of humanity, genre scenes that tell a story about social truths, hypocrisy,
sexual domination and religious ideas blended with comedy or tragedy.
- Checkers artist Genevieve Van der Wielen offsets the harshness of some of
these depictions with humor and allegory
using as illustration the contradictions
in life; her motifs represent a world of
young maidens, teens dressed as angels
and cupids, women with young children and
husbands or simply, a lovers plot; each
scene depicts the harsh realities of life
such as drugs, suicide, grief or loneliness
but they are juxtaposed to a smile, a seductive
look or a suggested atmosphere.
- As in the Checkers
Game painting, the female faces
resemble each other as well as the artist.
- The game of checkers is depicted in a clear linear design, developed by
simple forms and bold colors, yet the mood displays an express of sensitivity
in the portrayal of the figures.
- Though the faces don’t display
a lot of emotion, their postures speak
volumes about the nature of the checkers
game, especially with the right female
figure posed to make her next checker move;
her opponent appears rather nonchalant
as it would seem that she is winning the
game of checkers, noted by the number of
checker pieces next to the checkerboard.
- Viewers can easily identify with the
artists' leisurely moment shown in this
every day genre scene.
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