“The size of my work can be very different, but I prefer small. In my larger work there are usually smaller concentrations in a larger whole. … I think I’m looking for an intimate whispering and silent imagery. Settled and layered.”

“Everyone can look at my work in their own personal way. I love that. For me it’s an abstract language. My favourite artists are Cy Twombly and Antoní Tápies. And I love work that I think … how dare you … so vulnerable. My favourite periods are the interbellum [interwar] and the time just after World War II.”

Elly Dijkshoorn

5. Untitled, “Between Layers (Tussen Lagen)”, paper, pencil and acrylic on birchwood panel, 22 x 22 cm (or 38 x 38 cm in birchwood box frame): £950*

Elly Dijkshoorn (b.1949, Vlaardingen, The Netherlands) studied at the Royal Academie of Fine Arts in The Hague, and has exhibited internationally. She works mostly with acrylic on birchwood panels and adds materials such as paper, textiles and photographs that suggest memory. She does not give dates to her work as she often returns to them. They are a complete body of work.

Four of Dijkshoorn’s collages, titled ‘Small Things’, were exhibited in the “Small Spaces in the City” exhibition - miniature studies that seem to hint at tiny interior rooms and passageways.

“The sense of layering, materiality and colour placement is so sensitive in Elly Dijkshoorn’s abstract collages and process that her works seem to connect to something universal, as well as to personal thoughts. They draw you in and slow down time, with meanings that hover just out of reach. In some ways they remind me of the 1960s and 70s work of Robert Ryman too. Individually they are beautiful, with a raw poetry. Together they are like music variations.”

Clare Farrow

6, 7, 8. Untitled, ‘Shelters’, acrylic, paper and textile on birchwood panel, 17 x 17 cm (or 38 x 38 cm in painted birchwood box frame): £1,300*