Joke Frima is an internationally renowned and distinguished fine painter. Famous for her sublime and impressive enlargements of nature, she lives today in France, where she finds rest, space and inspiration for her still lifes and realistic enlargements of plants and fruits. Her paintings are sold and exhibited all over the world. The painting Eternal Return elected by the Portait Society of America as one of best still lifes in 2016 and has also won the finals at the ARC International Salon Live Competition. From April 14 gallery Wildevuur opens the exhibition Flora Delight; a fascinating overview of recent works by Joke Frima.

Free spirit with international aspirations
Joke Frima was born in 1952 in The Hague and grew up in nearby Zoetermeer. She was trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rotterdam and Tilburg, where another international trip followed to Studio Simi in Florence. Her teacher was Signorina Simi, a quite elderly lady, already initiated by her own father in the classic disciplines of painting. Under her supervision Frima practiced daily six hours a day in painting and drawing plaster feet, clay objects and live models. Until 1985 Joke stayed in Italy, where she also taught herself. Then she turned (temporarily) back to the Netherlands, where she developed the unique style that characterizes all of her paintings. In 1999, the foreign adventure attracted again. This time she moved to la douce France, in search of freedom, space and inspiration to develop her art.


From charcoal to real life painting
Joke Frima gives her works shape in a unique way. The origin of her technique can be traced back to her formative years at Studio Simi; First she makes a charcoal drawing on a primed canvas on panel. After she has knocked loose the charcoal particles, the remainder is rubbed firmly into the underlying layer with a brush with undiluted paint. After this, the initial result is already visible on the canvas. Then, the canvas is being painted with thinned oilpaint. Joke Frima considers the used shades of color with utmost care, to precisely apply the right color ratio in the paintings. Nature and vegetation play an important role in Joke Frima’s work, but she also combines carefully chosen objects for her still lifes. Many of the pumpkins, lemons and other fruits in her still lifes have the countryside where they grow as background, providing a somewhat surreal image. Through the play of light and shadow and the amazing precision with which Joke Frima paints her favorite objects, her paintings have an intense, almost magical effect.

Nature as an endless source of inspiration
Her inspiration Joke Frima has mainly from the beauty of nature. Her eye does not only fall on stylized compositions. Also unspoiled nature scenes, such as the painting Cotton Apple, or Bloom after bloom, are recurring themes in her work. During her incursions through nature Joke Frima always encounters surprising topics. 


A good example is the painting Madrogno. So this berry bush is called in Portugal, but in English it is called strawberry tree, although the fruit is in no way related to the strawberry. The fruits are a bit prickly and red when ripe and deep yellow when they are ripe. The landscape depicted above the still life, is the valley where Joke Frima discovered the Madrogno shrubby tree.
 

Joke Frima about her work: “I paint subjects that are often found not valuable, from my experience that simple things can be beautiful. Painting is breathing for me, it would be very detrimental to me to stop doing so."

If you also want to be surprised by the magic compositions of Joke Frima, we invite you to to visit the exhibition Flora Delight from April 14 on the estate Hiemstrastate, where our gallery is located. More information on Joke Frima and her work can be found at: www.wildevuur.nl/en/artists/joke-frima and www.jokefrima.com
 

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