Biography: Learning from Nature & Architecture

Erik Renssen was born on June 5th, 1960, in Deventer, the Netherlands.  As he grew up, he developed a genuine interest in, and respect for, the beauty of people and objects.  What makes beauty?  In his partly unconscious search for answers he studied forms and shapes in nature and architecture and looked for harmony and beauty in among other things classical music.  He learnt carpentry from his father and grandfather by looking, looking and looking, as he says.

Art came later.  Renssen started drawing and then painting and working with oils at the age of 24. Two years later, he moved to Amsterdam where he started working at a major architects office.  He read and drew architectural plans, studied graphic design and international architecture.  And he kept painting.

In 1994 he had his first exhibition in Amsterdam.  The exhibition - mostly women’s portraits - nearly sold out.  It also led to commissions and invitations for new exhibitions in the Netherlands (Gallery Vieleers and Gallery Rudolph V in Amsterdam) and in France (Chateau Thierry near Paris).

Renssen’s does not desire to belong to a particular group or movement or to be limited to only certain subjects.  He wants to give everything a try.  A key element of his training has been the close study of the great masters.  His favourites are Picasso, Modigliani and Morandi.  “Tradition” he says, quoting Salvador Dali, “is the blood of history”.

After having had his own interior design and building company, Renssen now concentrates fully on painting. For the future, among making more paintings, creating statues from leftover pieces of iron is high on his things-to-do list.