That’s Life – Annet van Belkom

In her newest series, That’s Life, Annet draws inspiration from the song ‘That’s Life’ by ‘Scorz’ to express the idea of life happening in cycles. The introduction of the electronic music track is accompanied by a beautiful story about life and reflects on the idea of who we are as humans and the continuity of life and it’s cycles.

From a young age, Annet’s passions were music and painting, but as she started to adult, life took over and made her follow a different path. Three years ago, life forced her to take a step back and gave her passions a chance to step back in. She started painting and felt a deep sense of rest and meditation during her painting hours. The painting took her out of her mind, and, as she explains, it makes her feel like a ‘cocoon’ where she just ‘is.’ Music played a significant role in her life, too, as she was trained in classical music.

Annet is very passionate about music and how it makes people feel. Most of the time she listens to music when she is painting, and in her newest series she tries to visualize her own interpretation of the songs in her paintings.

After a year or two of painting, people started to inquire about her paintings, and she worked full-time as an artist for a while. But over time, she realized she also wanted to learn more about the art world and to work with like-minded people. That’s when she started a new job at ‘WearePublic’, a platform that organizes all kinds of art-related activities, where she is responsible for marketing. Last summer, she decided she wanted to grow and bring more structure to her work, but mainly to get to know herself as an artist. That is why she decided to start working with St-Art Amsterdam.

Project Building with St-Art Amsterdam

When she started to work together with Carlo Tozzi, founder of St-art Amsterdam and coach during the project building sessions, one of the first questions that arose was; What do you want to tell as an artist?

Annet started to reflect on her life and her passions and realized music and psychology were the main subjects she wanted to express in her paintings. By making a mind map and exploring these themes, she realized she loves to paint people because of her emotions and channeling in her partings while painting human shapes.

She is fascinated by the idea of how a painting, as well as music, can make you feel. Instead of judging it as beautiful or not, only a feeling arises. For the series that she started to develop during her project-building sessions, she chose a song called ‘That’s Life’ that was shortly introduced in the introduction.

When she listens to a song, a feeling arises, and as Annet explains: I can not plan what I will create, but with the surface, I get visions which I start to translate on the canvas. This series was circular shapes beautifully placed around women. Sometimes the circles are open, sometimes closed.

She decided to paint the circles in different colors, because of course, everyone has an individual path, or as is explained in the song, a cycle. Annet is very excited about the process with St-Art Amsterdam. According to her, it is “exactly what she needs”. As she continues; “ I like to be able to discuss my idea with a coach, and I’m very happy I am able to bring structure to my work process.

Also, this is the first time I paint with a pre-developed idea, but it gives my work more substance. I love the process, even though it’s challenging”. Her newest series based on songs and music that are important to her will be exhibited soon at the St-Art Gallery at the Kinkerstraat 2, Amsterdam.