Landscape I - Gouache Painting by Nicolaas Maathuis

Executed in gouache on cardboard, the painting is constructed through broad areas of opaque colour placed next to and over one another. The composition uses simplified forms and broad areas of colour to suggest the landscape, with blue, red, ochre and warm earth tones layered across the surface. Blue, red, ochre and warm earth tones create shifts between foreground, distance and overlapping forms. The matte quality of gouache and the visible brushwork reinforce the work's layered and painterly character.

Nicolaas Maathuis is a Dutch visual artist and designer. Born on June 23 in Deventer, the Netherlands, he followed a diverse educational and professional path, studying at the conservatory (ArtEZ), the Rietveld Academy, and the University of Amsterdam. His interests have ranged from music and pedagogy to visual art and law before he established himself as a visual artist and designer.

Maathuis works across painting, drawing, ceramics, furniture and applied art, often combining artistic ideas with functional objects. His work is characterised by simplified forms, a strong use of colour, and hand-drawn and handmade elements, with an interest in bringing art into everyday surroundings.

Maathuis lives and works in Buren, the Netherlands.