Are you coming to the tree

Are You Coming to the Tree by Marijke Lambregtse is part of the series The Heart Is There, dedicated to the people of Gaza. And the last one of this small series of ten besides the bigger ones.
The work reflects on resistance sustained through memory, sharing, and the fragile persistence of hope. The title, drawn in part from The Hanging Tree, frames the image as both an invitation and a question. The tree is becoming a gathering point—symbolizing the ancient olive trees of Palestine, bearers of fruit, history, and rootedness. Though many have been destroyed, their presence will always be there through symbol and collective memory. Embedded within the foliage the circular marks are referencing seeds and fruit, a quiet emblem of Palestinian identity. The watermelon being an important symbol of resistance and solidarity representing the colors of the Palestinian flag signifying continuity, new growth and care, what must be protected and passed on.
The red area to the left evokes fishing nets, once central to daily life and sustenance in Gaza. Fishing, a vital way of living and connecting to the sea, has been increasingly restricted and denied. The net becomes both a memory of labor and nourishment and a symbol of loss of livelihood and autonomy.
The figures beneath the tree remain upright and close, some standing strong separated and waiting. Clinging on to hope standing together in quiet resistance. Above them the birds are witnesses—fragile, watchful, and a symbol of freedom.
This painting speaks to people clinging to hope when it is most precarious.
Profits of these works will go to doctors without borders in support of the Palestinian people
Needs framing, cam easily be framed by the collector, local framer or alternatively by Bluethumb
Comes varnished and signed on the back with a certificate of authenticity

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‘A work is born from a kind of confused emotion. The work is an attempt to elucidate that emotion.’ Puvis de Chavannes

‘An abstract language that reveals references to an aesthetic figuration with a surreal flavour. This is the art of Marijke Lambregtse, an Australian based contemporary artist of Dutch origin, who focuses her artistic research on the relationship between man and the world, in its most hidden aspects. Her paintings are often characterized by the presence of human-like figures, whose facial features vanish overwhelmed by fields of colour, annihilating gestural communication and leaving the latter in complete control of emotions.

An alternation of more gestural brushstrokes and more detailed and sharply described elements, give the work a pleasant dynamism. Looking at Marijke Lambregtse's paintings, we feel out of place, in awe, as if we have crossed the threshold into another world and we are suddenly strangers. (Francesca Brunello)

Her recent abstract figurative works arise from a growing eco-anxiety and a critical concern for the state of the world today. Shaped by direct encounters with climate change, pollution, displacement, and environmental injustice, the work responds to systems that prioritise profit, control, and exploitation over care and coexistence. She seeks to harmoniously merge message and aesthetics, using emotionally charged strikingly colorful, acrylic paint, recycled materials, text, and texture to confront viewers with both beauty and unease.

A professional dancer, teacher and choreographer before crossing over to studying visual art and gaining a BVA majoring in sculpture at Griffith University in Brisbane she was awarded the Karl and Gertrude Langer Award which resulted in a solo exhibition at the Brisbane Town Hall gallery.

Since then she has been exhibiting regularly with several solo exhibitions, being a finalist in numerous art awards and has been widely collected in Australia and overseas.

Brunswick Street Gallery Small Works Art Prize 2026
Lethbridge 2025 Small Scale Art Prize salon finalist
Finalist Abstraction Exhibition Petrie Terrace Gallery 2025/2024
Finalist in Lethbridge 2024/2023 Small Scale Art Awards Salon de Refusés
Finalist in the Brisbane Rotary Art Show 2024/2023
Finalist in the Brisbane Portrait Prize Salon des Refugees 2022
Finalist in the RQAS annual Exhibition 2023
Finalist in the Amore exhibition at Artprenr Gallery 2023
Finalist in the Queensland Figurative 2022
Finalist in the Lethbridge 20000 Small Scale Art Award in 2022, 21, 20 and 2019
Awarded the Power of Creativity Art Prize by Contemporary Curator Art Magazine in 2021
Highly Commended in the Abstraction Exhibition Royal Queensland Art Society 2021
Finalist in the Rotary Spectacular Brisbane in 2019 and 2018