50 x 70cm, Oil on Woodpanel, Netherlands, 2025
NENA
This painting of Nena is about warmth, welcome, and quiet depth, held together by the unmistakable presence of her flaming red hair — bold, beautiful, and full of life.
It’s the first thing you notice on the canvas, not because it demands attention, but because it radiates. It carries light. It carries energy. It is the visual echo of a woman who is both strong and gentle at the same time.
Nena has that rare presence — soft, open, steady — the kind of person who makes you feel at home simply by being herself. There is always a place at her table, always room for another chair, always something warm on the stove just in case someone happens to walk in.
She knows herself well, and that self is kind. She listens. She asks the question that matters. She brings conversations to where they are real — never forced, only gently guided.
As a teacher, she invites others to learn, to stretch, to grow — but with the understanding that structure and respect make real freedom possible.
In the painting, her red hair becomes its own story — a flame of confidence, identity, and quiet fire — contrasted with the calm that she offers to her family. She is the harbor, the grounding, the warmth. As her husband said: "Everyone should have a Nena in their life".
FAMILY VAN DER KEMP
These set of four paintings reflects the shared spirit that lives between them:
movement, welcome, curiosity, creativity, and the simple belief that life is best lived together.
This is a home where the door is open, the music is playing, the tools are out, the food is shared, and the conversation is always real. A place where everyone is free to be entirely themselves — loud, focused, playful, thoughtful, imaginative, tender, bold.
They are energetic and flexible — the kind of family that says yes first and figures out the details with laughter and involvement. There is warmth here. Care. Growth. And a deep love that shows itself in everyday gestures — cooking, building, learning, talking, showing up.
Painting this family was special because their identity is not simply in who they are individually, but in the space they create together.
A space full of life, light, shape, color, and connection.