Vita
Boundary lines
In my pictures I touch the borderline between night and day,
Darkness and light ,
the point at which the transcendent and the present become one,
and thus open up opportunities for intensive awareness,
meditative engagement, emotional tracking…
"Sunset Colors I"
2023; acrylic on canvas; 100*80 cm
SOLD to a private collector
Artist Statement
Vision, inspiration and visual language
Artistic vision
“In my paintings I touch the borderline between night and day, darkness and light – a duality of the same truth, the point where the transcendental touches the present – and thus open up opportunities for intense awareness, meditative engagement, emotional detection…When I encounter this light in my inner darkness, I touch the boundaries of eternity, free my inherent intuition in this very moment, unfold my potential into the outside world. In painting, I immerse myself with all my senses in this unique moment, which I experience, live and enjoy as boundless, courageously embarking on a new journey to myself in every work.
Out of the uncertainty, the question, the darkness within me, a moment of meditation arises with each work, a haven of peace that opens up my source of strength for rebirth in this unique moment of awakening. In this awakening, I feel an irrepressible joy in life in its uniqueness, beauty, sensuality, strength and creative stillness, which arise from the darkness and night, day and light of my inner self.
With my artworks, I would like to invite you as a viewer to immerse yourself in this magical moment of creative stillness, to feel your intuition and to bring it into the “now” as a creative force.”
Artistic Sources of inspiration
“Nature itself has always been the most direct source of inspiration for me and thus the starting point for my artistic observations, which is why I experience the abstract landscape as a particularly intuitive way of expressing the duality between light and darkness of what is hidden in the soul.
This also developed into my curiosity about the creative penetration of emotional states and experiences to which we are exposed in the constant confrontation with the reality surrounding us in the 21st century.
In the magical moment of contemplative interaction with my artworks, enabling access to this inspiring emotionality and thus a deep penetration of my own individuality is currently my creative drive and fascination.”
A universal language
“For me, visualizing emotions, experience, landscape and light in an abstract way is an expression of a universal language that can reach every individual across all boundaries of culture, socialization, religion and identity.”
What it demands of us in return is an intense moment of engagement with the pictorial motif, which comes into contact with us like a counterpart and – without having to find the language of words – deeply touches our emotions, intuition, our innermost and true self in the intense interplay of visual communication.
As a visualized emotion, abstraction carries the potential of an intuitive connection between the most diverse individuals, regardless of their origin. In order to create an equivalent for this universal, cross-border visual language, I always choose the titles of my works, series and exhibitions in English, as this represents the greatest possible verbal connection across individuality boundaries that I am aware of.
About the artist
Review and biographical sketch
A master of the imagination
In the world of art, the artist Hella Ridder is an explorer, a creator of worlds that lie beyond the visible horizon. Her tool is the paintbrush, her canvas a gateway to another dimension. The picture she creates is not just a representation, but a revelation, a glimpse into the soul of matter itself.
The surface of her work is rough and vivid, reminiscent of the rough texture of an old house wall, but in this apparent simplicity lies a deeper meaning. The colors – white, light blue, dark blue and yellow – are not chosen at random, but carefully composed to form a landscape that is both fascinating and alien. It may or may not be of this world, a place rooted in the artist’s imagination and brought to life by her hands.
The artist herself is a philosopher who poses questions through her art that are older than time itself. What is reality? What is illusion?
Her pictures are answers that cannot be expressed in words, but only through the language of colors and shapes.
She is an alchemist who transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, who combines the visible with the invisible.
Her experimental painting is a dialog with the viewer, an invitation to question one’s own perception and to see the world with new eyes. It is a work that not only wants to be viewed but also experienced, a work of art that bridges the space between the here and the there, the now and the eternal.
This is the artist: a master of the imagination, a guardian of the secrets of the universe, a storyteller who takes us on a journey through her pictures, on which we can perhaps learn a little more about ourselves and the world around us.
Biographical sketch
Hella Ridder is a German painter. She was born in Daun in the Eifel region in 1974.
Discovered artistically at an early age and individually encouraged, the artist Hannes Rötter accompanied her personal development until 2001. The turn to abstract painting as an emotionally and intuitively guided means of expression already took place in this first creative period.
Since 2015, he has developed his own self-taught style and style on this foundation, which is experimentally designed for the continuous development of new forms of expression and experiences in abstraction, with the aim of a constant development of artistic creation, the contemplation of nature as well as that of human emotionality as a source of inspiration remain constant companions.
Her works, for which she has already received several awards, have been presented many times at national and international exhibitions and art fairs.
After living in Istanbul, the Rhineland and the Ruhr region, the artist now lives at Schloss Lohe in Werl.
Awards
2024
“Award for
special artistic achievements”
(Luxembourg Art Price)
Longlist Artavita Art Contest
“Artist of the Year 2024”
ARTEXPO BASEL
“Excepted by the jury for the
ARTBOX PROJECT
Basel 3.0
2023
“Award for
special artistic achievements”
(Luxembourg Art Prize)
Finalist
Artavita Online Art Contest
2020, 2021, 2022
“Award for
special artistic achievements”
(Luxembourg Art Price)
Artistic approach
Image composition through intuitive color selection and sensitive detail design
Details and technology
“I mostly work with acrylic on canvas, occasionally in combination with pastel chalk. What fascinates me about my compositions is the variation of brush, palette knife and squeegee techniques, which I always choose consciously.
With every brushstroke I create a dynamic that contributes to my paintings having a lasting effect on the viewer.
Blending techniques in thick layers of wet paint, the use of the dry brush can be found in my works as well as fine relief-like structures that seem to transfer the two-dimensional work of art into three-dimensional reality.
I achieve a special depth effect in my paintings through the multiple and elaborate application of various colors and layers, which is often linked with the beginnings of a central perspective.
By deliberately leaving some lines open, I allow the viewer to bring their own creative process of recognition into my pictures.”
Style and composition
“The works themselves are designed as expressionist-experimental abstractions with impressionist influences in the V.U.K.A reality.
The choice of color at the beginning of the design process results in composition, form and style, which I choose intuitively and at the same time use in a targeted manner to realize an artistic vision whose emotional effect is based on the perfect balance of contrasts, colors and color dynamics.
In this process, the realistic representation consciously takes a back seat in favor of the sensory power of the image, in order to pave the way for an unconscious and thus liberated interaction between the viewer and the work of art.”
Close-up of the work "Magical Landscape"
2022; acrylic on canvas; 100*140 cm
Abstraction as visualized emotion
“Every creative work requires sensitive detail design – sometimes in barely perceptible nuances.
It is precisely these details that contribute to achieving the desired overall effect, which is why I always pay the same attention to every detail as I do to the work as a whole.
The visualized emotion emerges as a complete picture from the overall harmony of designed details.”