Ilse van Garderen is an experienced artist who has worked for many years and exhibited widely.  Her work is distinguished by fineness of detail, complete mastery of her form and style and an emotional aura of suppressed intensity.  In design, execution and subject matter, she refers back to the European masters.  Her figures are isolated not only from other human beings but also from their physical surrounds.  Either just emerging from or about to be reclaimed by the shadows, these modern faces brood upon the pain and mystery of their own existence.  Her landscapes are similarly ambiguous.  There are signs of cultivation, of human habitation but no-one to be seen.  The trees and vegetation filter, block out the light, so that the spectator feels himself in the shadow and moving towards a strange stillness and emptiness.  Ilse van Garderen’s work leaves you thinking and wondering about the unresolved nature of your own feelings. 

Jan Edquist, author/playwright

All images © Ilse van Garderen

Note: colours reproduced can vary from original artwork depending on viewing device used.