Marie Verstegen is a Dutch multidisciplinary artist. He has made sculptures out of wood, plaster, bronze, marble and granite but has also painted with acrylic and oil as well as perfecting his skills in etching and woodcut. In 1976 he was accepted into the Art Academy in Eindhoven where he studied industrial design. Alongside regular classes, he found time to qualify as a stone cutter. After obtaining both qualifications he set sail for Venice, where he completed a third qualification, this time a degree in art restoration.
To Verstegen, art in the form of painting, sculpture and graphic design is as vitally important as eating, drinking, sleeping and breathing. Travel is a frequent theme in his work, in which he captures the feeling a traveller often gets – the inspiration to sketch and develop new ideas. Whether on the beach, in a museum, in busy shopping streets or on a random street corner in the city, Verstegen always knows how to lay his eyes on something inspiring. For him, a girl at a bus stop in a remote Dutch village can be just as inspiring as a three-week journey through China. To him, art means looking at the spirit of the age and reflecting on it. Private collectors, companies and governments have purchased Verstegen’s work. He has exhibited worldwide and been awarded a large number of prizes. His work was selected for the 2017 Hida-Takayama International Contemporary Woodblock Print Triennial in Japan.
Photo by Charlotte Visser.
