“Childhood dreams & drawings”

This painting is a portrait of the Dutch artist Maartje Ferwerda-Klop on her pony Lotje in the year 1989, when she was 12 years old.

The little girl is on horseback dreams of "historical horses and scenes" represented in a cloud while the girl fantasizes about her future with horses; just as the artist has always done too.

"I was very scared to ride, and many people told my parents that I should have stopped riding, but I was so determined and loyal. I knew my love for horses was much bigger than my fear. And I was right!"

Today the Dutch artist is still riding: her horses live at her little farm, and she competes in high level dressage competition. Her pony Lotje was 24 years old when she died (Maartje was the same age), and her death had a big impact on the artist. She was there until the last moment.

Maartje couldn’t watch pictures of her for many years.

Besides horse riding, she also wrote books about horses. Sometimes these were books with only drawings, like a comic book.

Today, she loves painting the little Lotje, as a tribute to her and what she did for Maartje: thanks to her she became the painter and the woman she is today.

Maartje Ferwerda-Klop has been painting for 6 years now. But she has always drawn and worked with pastel, also taking care of some commissions of paintings, especially portraits of horses, dogs, and people.

She recently became a member of the Paard Verzameld collective and for her it is a huge motivational boost: she loves being in a group of so many artists and being able to share her ideas.

She is a very inspired artist, who loves daily challenges and above all she loves to learn and steal every secret from the greatest artists.

Maartje Ferwerda-Klop, 1976, Dutch. Painter of oil paintings, photographer, and sculptor. She is a producer of free style tests on music.

www.jura-artwork.nl,

IG: maartje0812,

FB: Maartje Ferwerda-Klop

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“Childhood dreams & drawings”, oils on a panel with linen, 20x30 cm.

Maartje Ferwerda-Klop is a member of the  Paard Verzameld Collective.

Through international collaboration between Paard Verzameld and the Horse Museum Foundation, the painting will be exhibited during the Pratoni del Vivaro World Championships in September 2022.