Maria Dellaert

Maria Dellaert (1987) started her formal education at the art academy in Arnhem, ArtEZ. Today she lives on a farm in Zeeuws Vlaanderen, where she has built a permaculture garden and is very much concerned with the transition of the seasons. She has a huge fascination for man versus nature and her natural bond with both. In addition, Maria has always been occupied with texture and fascinated by the combination of different materials. All this is clearly reflected in her works of art.

In her mixed media works Maria Dellaert combines techniques that are centuries old with new media techniques. She works layer upon layer by means of the encaustic technique. She uses materials such as gold leaf and powder, oil paint, pastels, pigments, oil chalk and beeswax. Her work also shows influences from works from the Rijksmuseum collection.

The word encaustic comes from the Greek word ‘enkaio’ and loosely translated means ‘burnt in by heat’. It is a technique in which pigments are mixed with hot beeswax. In ancient Egypt, the encaustic technique was already used for making portrait paintings. Despite the fact that everyone immediately thinks of a dripping candle when thinking about beeswax, it is a technique in which pigments remain extremely well preserved.

Vulnerability is an important theme that runs through all of Maria Dellaert’s artworks. She subtly projects this onto her models through the layering in her work.