Of sandy beaches

‘Of sandy beaches’ (echo of a past) by Marijke Lambregtse.
This large mixed media painting on very heavy high quality stretched canvas has a lot of connotations. It is inspired again by our trip to Lembongan island while we lived in Bali for four months. It basically is about many environmental issues I was confronted with during this time. Specifically for this island the disappearance of the coral, seaweed, fish and fisherman with their small boats who in the past would show you the corals without disturbance to the reefs. Nice and peaceful. Seaweed an organic way of farming still happens on a very small scale and we were very lucky to see some of it. It was a life saver during the COVID period. Of course all the smaller islands will have problems with the seawater level rise as well. It’s one of the most gorgeous islands with sunsets and views to Mount Agung on Bali in the distance. I tried to create a mood of being there, of the beauty, the colors and of course the worries about the future. I used a restricted pallet of colors and different tools to create this, a pallet knife for the sandy parts and collage, a huge brush to start of the water which can be extremely beautiful and flat and drips and a smaller brush for the sky. The drips are also of significance as they are running out of water big time. So all sorts of different influences to create something meaningful and beautiful.
Some of the text in the work is inspired by a poem about seaweed from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
A painting which will create food for discussion and beauty on your wall.
Comes varnished, ready to hang and signed at 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