Bé van der Heide

Visual Artist/Painter

My ‘Real Family’ series

Bé writes in the Spring of 2006:

The "ENFANT TERRIBLE" series of work related to my childhood experiences in Holland, during and after the Second World War, vague memories of hiding in ditches while the bombs were falling down, excitement and feeling the fear of the parents, powerful enough to still hound me today. Being constantly teased by one of my sisters who called me "Enfant Terrible". Memories of a blind grandmother, a very religious grandfather, everybody displaced, living with relatives and friends. All our belongings burned. I only found a few items of that period, one is a photo album and one an old childhood book with a bullet hole in it. There is only one photo of my mother and me.

My mother and me, what was my mother really like. I know she rode a motor bike in

the thirties, from a tiny picture of her and my much older sister. There are so many

things I would like to know now she is not here .

At this moment I live half the year in a 17th century farmhouse in Catalunya, Spain. This

farm is full of memories of an other family. It seems they just left. I sleep in an old

beautifully carved bed, broken chairs are everywhere, dresses still hanging on rusty

hooks in stables, old handbags, hats and a MOTORBIKE

This family could have been mine too. Their Mother and Mothers mine too. They are

gone and not gone.

In my series My “Real Family” I combine "real" memories with memories imagined.

There are paintings of chairs I imagine my "family" had sat on.. The motorbike

from here and my Dutch mother riding it. Mothers and daughters. The two families

like one and the same, interwoven. I feel almost closer to this Spanish family than the

one in Holland . They seem to be here still. The dress, the farmers wife used for

milking the cows, still hanging on a rusty nail. A discarded plastic handbag…..

Series images and descriptions

“Schimmen”, 2006, 125 x150 cm, Mixed media on stretched canvas

£2000

“On the bike”, 2006, 120 x 105 cm, Oil paint and mixed media on canvas

behind glass in wooden frame

(SOLD)

“Who is my mother”, 2005, 156 x 182 cm, mixed media on stretched canvas

£3700.00

“The good Lord is looking after you”, 2006, 156 x 182 cm, mixed media on stretched canvas

£3700.00

“Nice little girl 2”, 2006, 122 X 148 cm, Oil paint and mixed media on canvas

behind glass in wooden frame

£3700

“Bike”, 2005, 105 x 120 cm, Oil paint and mixed media on canvas behind glass

(SOLD)

“Chair”, 2005, 105 x 120cm, Mixed media on canvas, behind glass in wooden frame

£1650.00

“Werkjas”, 2006, 95 x 85 cm, Oil and mixed media on canvas, behind glass in wooden frame

£1500

“Hat”, 2006, 107 x 83 cm, Oil paint and mixed media on stretched canvas

£1500

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