German-born Beate Minderjahn (1961) immigrated with her family to New Zealand in 1999. Beate now lives and works just north of Auckland (North Island). Her passion for drawing, painting, creating and writing came at a very early age, inspired by a creative mother and the circumstances of her childhood and up-bringing in Belgium and Germany.
After graduating in Business Management and then studying Interior Design, Beate set out to combine her business skills with her love for painting as she pursued a professional career as an artist. For over fifteen years, she has focused on creating a prolific range of artworks in several media, including watercolours, acrylics, Digital Photo Art, collages, prints, mixed media and poetry.
Beate’s large abstract paintings have been extensively exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Germany, New Zealand and the US. A small portion of her work involves private commissions.
In 2007 Beate set up her studio in a large transformed shed (ARTSHED3) in Dairy Flat, where she is now able to work on more large-scale projects.
“Beauty plays an influential role in my artworks. My large-scale artworks are first and foremost created with the intention to touch the viewer’s soul; to connect on a subconscious level and to stir up the imagination.
My expressive style continues to evolve into an ongoing artistic journey of discovery. After years of working with heavy textures I have recently begun to explore the viscosity of the paint medium in an increasingly energetic manner - the physicality of this process is a cathartic experience. The process is controlled only in as much as each unique work reveals my stylistic continuity. Though the liquid colours are given the freedom to find a life of their own, my hand becomes evident as a practiced guide and selector, positioning specific colour combinations together while directing the spontaneous flow. It is no accident that the surface of the canvas appears to explode, swirl violently and then settle into a surreal landscape. Although images of volcanic eruptions, pyro-plastic flows and thunderstorms are easily conjured up, the paintings can also be interpreted by viewers as sensory manifestations of subconscious or emotional revelations.”
“I am an artist who is obsessed with forms, lines, shapes and colours - and with freedom. I think that’s why I finally became an artist. The freedom to express myself in a universal visual language, only limited by my own imagination and my own set of rules, is a priceless gift. I sometimes prefer not to explain my works of art. I live and breathe through the process of creating - at times very happily, at other times it is painful. And the outcome? Well, that is what I am happy to offer to the viewer to interpret and appreciate from their own perspective.”
Beate Minderjahn
August 2009