The artistic works of Eugènie Herlaar
Eugènie Herlaar became famous in her country in 1965 as the first female journalist presenting the daily news on Dutch Television, as female anchor.
She always had great interest in cultural and creative activities. Already as a child she was drawing, later on she made paintings in water colours. Then her journalistic career took too much time for her cultural passion.
After retirement she did start again in 2000. She therefore followed summer courses in painting at the Classic Art Academy in Groningen.
In her work she shows a variety of subjects and techniques. She prefers working with oil paint, but working with acrylic paint is also familiar to her. The brush technique is mostly subtle. The harmonious colour combinations add greatly to a silent atmosphere. Her artistic works have been shown at several exhibitions.
A selection of her work is shown in the Gallery. Very special are the paintings on leaves of the Seagrape, a tree that grows in the Caribbean (more information below).
About art painting on Seagrape leaf
The Seagrape is a tree with thick leaves, like leather, that grows along the sea in the Caribbean. It has flowers (and later fruit) like grape clusters. That explains the name. When the leaves fall down, they are already dried and brown. The best ones are taken to be painted. Latin name: Coccoloba uvifera. It’s known from experience that these painted leaves do not decay.
See the gallery of leaf paintings.
Next to painting she also wrote poems and short stories. These are published in volumes. She also performed as ‘storyteller’.