Monique van Doorn

Artist & Modern Nomad

I am a Dutch artist and modern nomad. I don’t have a fixed studio.

My studio is wherever I put down my suitcase.

For years I have been travelling and creating along the way. A new place brings new colours, materials, people, animals and light. I look around, get inspired and create with what I find around me.

South Africa has become an important part of that journey. Somehow, I keep finding my way back.

My work moves between drawing, painting and mixed media. I work with pencil, charcoal, paint, recycled materials and gold leaf.

Different places. Different materials. Different stories.

But one thing keeps coming back.

The circle.

Sometimes open, sometimes closed. Sometimes obvious, sometimes almost hidden. The sun, the moon, the earth. Movement, change, life.

And then there is gold.

Gold, for me, is not about glamour. It is about light.

As the light changes, the gold changes with it. What you see is never quite the same twice.

Some of my work is small enough to travel with me.

Some of it definitely doesn’t fit in my suitcase. 😉

Why I chose this life

In 2009, a breast cancer diagnosis changed the way I looked at life. After completing my treatment, I decided I didn’t want to keep waiting for someday.

I sold almost everything and started travelling.

Since then, I have chosen to collect experiences rather than things. New places, new people, long walks, unexpected encounters and, of course, art.

My walking shoes, camera, sketchbook and pencils are never far away.

Wherever I go, I create.

Perhaps that is also why these words have stayed with me:

Grab Life by the Horns.

And why another thought has slowly become the thread connecting my work:

LOOK AGAIN

THERE IS ALWAYS LIGHT.