Merula Esther Art
About the Artist
Hello, I am Merula Esther, a visual artist living in Holland.
I was born in 1990 in Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands. I grew up in a family filled with creative minds and I have been drawing since early childhood.
In 2013 I started painting as well, mainly creating works of art in oilpaint. Over the years I have taken many art classes with different teachers. I am mostly educated in classical and realistic oilpainting techniques.
In addition to these painting lessons I have been dedicated to discover and develop my own style as an artist. At the start of my career I have attempted this by creating colourful drawings in pastel and by painting portraits of both humans and animals. I have worked and experimented with acrylic paint, sheet metal and molding paste as well.
I create collections of different subject matters, working from one series to another, to hone my skills and to get acquainted deeply with the materials that are available to me.
Currently I aim to do justice to the beauty of the observable universe by painting moons, stars and countless nebulae, using either acrylic paint or oilpaint on linen.
In recent years interstellar nurseries have become some of my favourite subjects to paint.
One of the most interesting facts about the universe to me is that the atoms that make up life on Earth and the human body can be traced back to high mass stars that became unstable in their old age and exploded, scattering their materials across the cosmos. Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and other fundamental ingredients of life were spread out over space. These ingredients became part of gas clouds that expanded, condensed, collapsed and formed new star systems. Our very own solar systems being one of them.
When I look up at the night sky I know that the atoms that make up human beings, and all life around us, come from those stars and their predecessors. When I marvel at the beautiful images of the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope I see that we are a part of this vast universe, where new stars a continually formed, but more importantly, the universe is a part of us. Humanity is eternally connected to the cosmos and it is of the utmost importance that we continue to study the world around us to always learn more about it.
My love for art, nature and science are inseparable and I could never imagine one without the other. Throughout my collections I long to create an atmosphere that communicates the connection that human beings subconsciously have with their surroundings and one another.
I want my audience to reflect on the mysticism around the human experience, but not in a way that disturbs them. My goal is to leave any onlooker with feelings of curiosity and wonder as I explore the debts and the radiance of the universe with paint.
The practice of painting is an essential part of my life and I could not imagine an existence without creativity.
To me the execution is just as relevant as the idea of the painting. I want my art to be skillful and to soothe the mind, to shine a light on the wonders of this world and the abilities of the human spirit. I believe that discipline and hard work behind the easel will ultimately result in fluency and freedom.