Antoinette Ferwerda
Lives and creates her paintings and artworks in her Melbourne studio, Australia. Her Dutch heritage and Australian upbringing have encouraged a playful style of artwork – a sense of old blending with new, her confident use of colour capturing light and adding a playful warmth to her subject matter. She uses acrylic paint and paper on canvas for paintings framed in raw timber. Her “Fireworks” paintings splatter ink on hand-made paper. Her signature palm tree pods which grow in her back garden, are collected and restored, then hand-painted for a new design purpose. Creative themes focus on light and the geometry of shape. Her compositions capture soft colours and reflect upon memories of countryside landscapes, the beach and classic literature.
Influenced by science and art, she enjoys exploring pattern and shape.
Inspiration for Antoinette comes from many things – daily life, art history, abstract expressionism, science and the natural world, architecture, her children’s drawings – she says she simply loves to create. An artist, wife to David and “Mum” to Tehya & Lawson, she is the creative designer behind the sold-out success of Ziporah designer towel collection. She is excited to be launching her next designer towel collection for NINNHO in January 2015.
Ministry of Art will host her first gallery exhibition commencing 13 November, 2014. She is a feature artist for the annual Camberwell Girls Grammar School Art show, CamArt, 28 November, 2014. Her original paintings hang upon walls in Australia, Europe and the USA. She works directly with art collectors for private commissions in homes and offices, regularly collaborating with interior designers and stylists for television and print press. She is represented by Greenhouse Interiors for her original, boutique retailer art collection.