Born in Deventer, the Netherlands in 1960, Erik Renssen is an independent artist - an intellectual assembler of images. What started as a modest beginning in the field of oil painting has developed over the past three decades into a prolific international artistic career. He is now an established artist with a steadily growing group of admirers and collectors.
Although Renssen is primarily a painter, his constant curiosity has drawn him to the charms of other artistic mediums. He enjoys making bronze sculptures and has ventured into the graphic arts, creating limited edition lithographs and linocuts. He explores the boundaries of his talent and does not feel any limitations when it comes to color, style and subject matter. Portraiture, still life, cityscapes and representations of family life are frequent themes in his art.
Renssen’s admiration for the work of Pablo Picasso has resulted in a meticulous study of the great master’s work. He has internalized Picasso’s visual language and he uses it to paint his own personal stories. Renssen’s blonde women are not Marie-Thérèse but rather the women in his own life. The Notre Dame becomes the Rijksmuseum, Paris becomes Amsterdam, the coffee pot he paints might be the one that was across the table from him at breakfast...
