Carola Siksma-Ruiters lives and works in Blaricum
About Carola
Ever since my early childhood, I remember how much I enjoyed drawing, painting and modeling. Sometimes on Wednesday afternoons my sister and I were allowed to get clay from a potter a few blocks away in Vesting Naarden. Then we would walk home with a lump of clay and then spend a few hours wrestling delightfully with modeling an object.
Because I worked a lot with my hands, my parents thought an advanced degree in art might be for me. With a great-great-grandfather who passed on his creative painting genes to his descendants including my mother, definitely not a strange choice. But I chose a career in business. Still, I did not forget my inner voice and avidly took painting classes to develop further. For that, I took lessons from some great teachers.
Experience in print and online media
For the past 25 years, I have been self-employed as a publisher in the world of print and online media. Here I was able to express my creative aspirations in writing, website development and magazine design. But it wasn’t enough. You can’t deny yourself. I wanted to get more out of it.
Developing your own handwriting
Because nothing is more delightful than losing yourself in the making of a painting and looking through the eyes of an artist at the special and beautiful things in our world. This includes visits to exhibitions and museums at home and abroad. These activities run as a thread through my life and are still important to me.
Developing my own handwriting was not easy, partly because of the combination with my full-time job. Through self-examination and taking various courses, I have now embraced painting abstract landscapes and it is time to present my work to a wider audience.
Exhibits
- Ton de Kruijk, Bussum
- ‘t Spant
- Huizen City Hall
- The Mess, Naarden
Before establishing herself as an artist, she took classes at:
- Ton de Kruijk, Bussum
- Art Center Collage, Pien Schouten, Hoevelaken
- Gooische Academie, Ursula de Boer, Laren
- Ivan Mijatovic, Huizen
- Carine van Gorp, Naarden
- Training New Academy Utrecht
