Veronica Vos

Veronica Vos

Born on the Dutch Antillian Island of Curacao (1946). Moved at a very young age to the village of Breukelen in the Netherlands. I attended the "Vrije school" in the Hague and later graduated from the "Geert Groote school" in Amsterdam (both Rudolf Steiner schools). After a year travelling abroad I followed an art education at the "Rietveld Academie" in Amsterdam. Ten years later I decided to do an art therapy study at the Academie "De Wervel" in Driebergen. I left the city and from 1971 to 1991  I lived and worked as an artist in the country, where I started teaching modeling in clay, drawing and painting at the bio-dynamic agriculture school "de Warmonderhof", in the village of Kerk-Avezaath. The school was situated in a very picturesque place called "Thedinghsweert", a manor house with stables and a farm surrounded by beautiful nature. In this setting I already started to explore the themes in my paintings for the first time: rhythms of earth's changing seasons with its Christian festivals. This gave me the possibility to further investigate from the past the purest form of celebration and use it in my lessons.

At this point I came upon a very old midwinter Norwegian legend: "The dreamsong of Olsav Asteson", which I later, in detail interpreted in 16 paintings.

My interest is in the inner world of man, not so much the emotional man but the relationship between man and its spiritual origin. How do you express that? How can I make aware that mankind is living in relation to a spiritual world?  Until recent times there was much knowledge about the hierarchies of heavenly beings: it was cherished by generations of Christian thinkers in the early Christian centuries, they were widely known, much is forgotten now about the angels and archangels who inspire the different atmospheres during the seasons. I believe, even though no longer perceived directly, this relationship has always remained as an actual inspiration for man. In search of understanding and knowing himself he has to understand the two worlds they are intertwined. Through history we are acquainted with the mostly biblical images, which sometimes give a glimpse in the unseen world, as a way of meditation.

I tried to translate these images into our present time, first I did so in more abstract paintings, but gradually more figurative elements entered in my work.The images are representing encounters which include the spiritual dimension as far as my imagination goes. Often in doubt I work until I recognize something that satisfies me.

The images are meant to experience a moment of intense concentrated power, as if holding ones breath for the next step into the incertain future.