Anne-Marie Verdel creates figurative, impressionist paintings of the natural and unnatural world

Anne-Marie Verdel creates figurative, impressionist paintings of the natural and unnatural world. She captures life’s magic and colors onto canvas, playing with the borders between subject and background. They often spill over into each other, exploring the fact that in the end ‘everything is one’.

At the moment she is exploring the world of birds, being inspired by their vibrant colors, freedom and fragility. According to Anne-Marie the natural world is full of symbols and messages, and animals often show up on your path to tell you something or just bring a spark of joy.

Anne-Marie also paints her dreams, capturing their messages and symbols onto canvas. An example of this is her large painting ‘The Visitor’ (150 x120cm). It tells the story of a wolf visiting her in her dreams, telling her to follow her own path. It also tells the story of light and darkness: the need to feed both the light or good part in you, represented by the wolf sitting in the moonlight, as well as feeding or nourishing your shadow side– represented by the shadow of the wolf. Only if you keep them in balance, you will stay balanced. If you only focus on the good, the shadow will grow larger too. Or as a famous Buddhist quote goes: “Water which is too pure has no fish”.

Anne-Marie lived in tropical Borneo until she was nine years old, instilling in her a great love for our colorful planet and animals. Her arts teacher in high school advised her to go to an Art Academy, but at that time she was more interested in pursuing an academic degree in Sinology at Leiden University; she was drawn to understand the beautiful Chinese characters and the philosophy of flow – Taoism. After obtaining her Masters, she pursued an international career whilst continuing to learn the craft of painting by attending art schools in Leiden, Haarlem and Paris. After 10 years in the office, she decided to follow her heart and be a full-time painter. At the moment she lives in the Green Heart’ of the Netherlands, a small rural place near the lakes of Nieuwkoop, close to Gouda.

For more info, visit her website (www.annemarieverdel.com) and Instagram: @annemarie.verdel . She also takes on commissioned paintings.

“Blue tit on orange” (15×15 cm)

“Robin on turquoise” (15×15 cm)

“Open Arms” ((50×70 cm)

“Great Spotted Woodpecker” (30×24 cm)

“Kingfisher” (30×40 cm)

“Kingfisher on violet” (15×15 cm)

“The European Peacock Butterfly” (12×12 cm)

“The Visitor” (150×120 cm)

“Well…come and join us” (100×120 cm)