About The Artist

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM LOST STORIES - THE ART OF VAN RENSELAR Van Renselar grew up in South Wales, moving to Little Venice in his teens then on to Bromley, where he now lives and works. As a contemporary abstract artist Van Renselar is more concerned with form and colour as an alternative to subject matter. It is not his aim to represent our surroundings or any particular object, he takes ideas from experiences which are visual, cerebral and emotional in nature. His inspiration can as easily be sparked by lines from a song as by an emotional event. Colour is equally as important as the general design and Van Renselar will spend a lot of time perfecting the tone of a particular colour, his primary objectives being to establish harmony both in terms of composition and the use of colour. Across the range of pictures there is no defining key of symbols - there is no ‘language’ for the viewer to learn, each picture establishes itself on its own visual merits and the viewer’s interest. As Van Renselar says, "I want to make pictures which involve and intrigue the viewer. I take ideas from around and within me, using intuition and imagination to create a new context. Much of my work stems from my subconscious, where I see actions, events and ideas as particular shapes and colours. It took me a long time to fully realise that not everyone translated the world in this way.” Van Renselar describes himself as an abstract artist, yet his paintings sometimes utilise figurative elements - he explains: "These are spontaneous symbols, they are just things that occur to me when making the particular picture, hence their meaning can differ from picture to picture. They seldom have any meaning related to what they actually resemble. I don’t want my pictures to be understood - to me, deconstructing a picture would be like dividing a poem into its single words. VAN RENSELAR HAS RECENTLY SHOWN WORK AT: The Innovative Art Fair, Brick Lane On The Wall Art Fair, London Olympia The Brighton Art Fair Arndean Gallery, Cork Street, W1 White Space Gallery, Greenwich Gallery Kaleidoscope, NW3 The Railway, Tulse Hill (Solo) Brighton Artists Gallery (Solo) Art Basel (Miami) Broadway Gallery, Broadway, New York, USA The Peacock Gallery The Light Gallery, London W2 Globe Gallery, Weybridge VAN RENSELAR’s WORK HAS FEATURED IN…. Art&Prose NY Arts China Arts Magazine Art Fairs International Absolute magazine Picture Business Insight Good Housekeeping