Interview: Marloe Maria Tegelaar
Luca Curci talks with Marloe Maria Tegelaar during MORPHOS – TEMPORARY IDENTITIES 2025 at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello in Venice.

Marloe’s artistic journey is a continuous exploration, unfolding across different creative disciplines and life experiences. Growing up in a village in the south of the Netherlands, her childhood was marked by both
warmth and challenges. Surrounded by the love and encouragement of her mother, she found peace in drawing and painting from an early age. Creativity was not only nurtured but taken very seriously, and her first painting, a watercolor of a swan with three cygnets, was a present to her grandfather, a painter himself. Her deep bond with her mother played a crucial role in her creative development. It was her mother who introduced her to various artistic techniques and who encouraged her to follow her imagination. But this unwavering support was abruptly taken away when she lost her mother early in life. This loss became a turning point in her life. The pain and absence left an indelible mark, yet in time, it also brought her closer to her true self. It was her mother’s love for art that would later inspire her to return to what had always been her greatest passion. Her background lies in product design (ArtEZ), fashion, and trend forecasting.

Later on, when she asked herself, “What did I love doing most as a child?” she found her way back to painting. Since then, she has been building her painting practice with dedication, self-study, and technical refinement. Her work has evolved from individual portraits into cohesive series, unified by atmosphere, color, and thematic depth. Where she was once searching for her own visual language, it has now become more clearly defined. Her recent works are distinguished by a more consistent palette and a psychological intensity that resonates. Her development is marked by the integration of earlier disciplines: a designer’s eye for form and context, the tactile and stylized sensibility of fashion, and the conceptual depth drawn from both her personal life and her work as a trend forecaster. This blend makes her work both recognizable and deeply personal.

“My work is about visualizing what cannot be seen directly, but can be felt. I do not paint just appearances, but inner worlds, portraits in which melancholy, introspection, strength, and vulnerability become visible. These are not documentary portraits, but fictional, carefully constructed faces that function as mirrors for the viewer. The question is not: “Who is this?” but rather: “What does this evoke in me?” In a time when identity is increasingly fluid and digital, my work offers space for introspection and empathy. In a world of fast, overwhelming, and often artificial images, I choose to work slowly, with care and skill. I strive for a new visual language, which might be seen as a contemporary form of “neo-Intimism”, a continuation of early 20th-century “Intimism” in which technology and traditional craft converge, and the portrait once again becomes a reflection of the inner self. In this context, art serves as a bridge between the senses and the soul. I present fictional faces with genuine expressive power, created through analogue, handcrafted techniques born from digital preparation. The stylization of mood, light, and emotion takes center stage. It’s a return to the essence, through new tools, but with a timeless aim”.

The models in my work do not exist in real life. I construct them digitally, layer by layer, paying close attention to color, lighting, and atmosphere. From this constructed image, I paint in thin layers of oil on canvas. The digital process allows me the freedom to develop a highly personal visual language, exactly
as I envision it. Painting then reintroduces tactility, soul, and slowness into the image. Through this entire process, from digital imagination to traditional painting, something emerges that, despite its fictional origin, feels real. Not because it exists, but because it feels human. AI, image editing, and digital composition are not threats to me, but raw materials; not an endpoint, but a starting point. Where others avoid AI or embrace it as a final product, I use it as the basis for something more tangible. In my practice, new technologies are employed to amplify the human and to fully express my own inner world and
visual language on canvas. My work brings together many elements: new technologies, traditional techniques, aesthetic refinement, and social relevance. I do not see the portrait as a practical artifact of the past, but as the ultimate medium to understand the contemporary human being, in all their beauty,
loneliness, and longing. My portraits are not representations of reality, but tools to evoke feeling; through a gaze, a posture, a glimpse of vulnerability or strength. Though the characters do not exist, they elicit real human emotions in the viewer: wonder, melancholy, recognition, empathy. That paradoxical effect, fiction that feels emotionally true, is to me the heart of my work.

Luca Curci – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most? Marloe Maria Tegelaar – My background lies in product design, fashion, and trend forecasting. Later on, when I asked myself, “What did I love doing most as a child?” I found my way back to painting. Since then, I have been building my painting practice with dedication, self-study, and technical refinement. My work is evolving more and more from individual portraits into more cohesive series, unified by atmosphere, color, and thematic depth. Where I was once searching for my own visual language, it’s becoming more and more clearly defined now. My recent works are distinguished by a more consistent palette and a psychological intensity that resonates. My development is marked by the integration of earlier disciplines: a designer’s eye for form and context, the tactile and stylized sensibility of fashion, and the conceptual depth drawn from both my personal life and my work as a trend forecaster. This blend makes my work very personal.

LC – What is art for you?
MMT – For me, the purpose of art is to offer a moment of recognition. The faces I paint are not representations of real people; they are fictional figures, and yet they evoke something real: a memory, a feeling, a state of being. What one reads in a face does not emerge from the canvas, but from within the viewer. Every glance, every emotion that surfaces is shaped by personal experience, by longing, loss, recognition. If my work reveals something not about the subject, but about the one who is looking, then it has fulfilled its
purpose.

LC – Among the several techniques you use, which one do you prefer to practice, and which are most compelling for you?
MMT – My process is a fusion of contemporary digital techniques and traditional craftsmanship. It begins with building my reference image, layer by layer, using digital tools and image editing. I carefully construct the composition, colour palette, lighting, and mood. This allows me to exert a high level of control over the image I want to create. No longer bound to painting from physical, existing models, I now have access to an extremely rich collection of visual possibilities, allowing me to shape a world that exists exactly as I imagine it. Once the digital vision aligns with what I feel and envision internally, the traditional part begins: painting with oil on linen. I work slowly, in thin layers, allowing the image to emerge gradually. In both stages, the digital construction and the physical act of painting, I lose all sense of time and space and enjoy it fully.

LC – Where do you find your inspiration?
MMT – I’m deeply fascinated by our ongoing pursuit of perfection. A perfect appearance, perfect performance, perfect happiness. There’s always something just beyond reach, but when do we ever arrive? And when we do, does that moment truly bring us peace or fulfillment? These questions stay with me because they touch something universal. In my work, I don’t search for what is flawless, but for the fragile space in between: where we try to be strong and beautiful, but remain visibly human. Where confidence and vulnerability quietly coexist.

LC- How do you feel when you see your work completed?
MMT- The moment a work is completed rarely feels like a full stop. It feels more like a comma. While I’m still working on one face, the next one is already forming in my mind; a mood, a glance, a presence announcing itself. There is satisfaction in finishing, but not closure. My thoughts are often ten steps
ahead, filled with images, questions, and ideas long before the previous work is even close to complete. It’s as if the process itself opens the door to what comes next. Every completion stirs up a new longing to search again, to reach deeper, to surprise myself, and to discover what will choose to emerge this time.

LC – What do you think about the ITSLIQUID Platform?
MMT – In my view, ITSLIQUID is a platform that offers real opportunities for visibility and exposure on an international stage, especially for emerging artists. Itsliquid is a very professional, supportive platform and is effective in connecting your work to broader audiences through exhibitions in Europe.

LC – What are your suggestions about our services? Is there something more we can provide to artists?
MMT – I appreciate what the platform offers, especially in terms of international exposure and the opportunity for emerging artists to present their work in major cultural hubs. That global visibility is a very strong asset.