“I try to speak a language of form and color through my paintings,” says Laurence Steenbergen, and her works make strong yet subtle use of those elements. Using acrylics on surfaces ranging from canvas to linen and paper, Steenbergen takes the images and colors she finds in the world around her and employs them in strikingly composed images. In some cases, she will draw a still life onto her canvas, then turn the image 90 degrees and draw the image onto the canvas again. The results are often kaleidoscopic images that powerfully involve the viewer, maintaining a strong tie to nature while recasting the vantage point from which we look at it.
Steenbergen’s colors also express her unique take on the natural world. She mixes the soft blues and greens of plants and water with shades that have an almost neon intensity, once more putting us simultaneously in the natural world and within the world of her imagination. Born in South Korea, Steenbergen grew up in the Netherlands, where she now lives and works.