Elvira van Bochove

ELVIRA VAN BOCHOVE  Transmitting through art

Categories
Painting

We are mostly water

This human is the container and the water that feeds the earth. The water that she drank is floating in her eyes.  Tiny fishes enter through the straw and can be seen swimming there. The fishes are part of her body, that is their habitat. 

“We are mostly water”
Acylic on canvas – 100 x 100 cm

Available in high quality print

My bubbletea drinking daughter, who has these huge eyes was my model for the painting. At the time she kind of wanted to be a froggirl (she watches anime a lot). It is quiet easy to recognise her as a watercreature…

Categories
Painting

She would rather turn to foam than kill him


The sea that once was her home is about to swallow the Little Mermaid, who is turning into foam. This is the consequence of the Prince loving someone else more then her. She could have saved herself by stabbing a dagger in his heart on the night of his marriage. But she loved him more than her own life and threw herself into the sea. Knowing that she would ultimately dissolve into it…
“She would rather turn to foam than kill him” is after “Ophelia” by John Everett Millais.

She would rather turn to foam than kill him     2020

acrylics on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

The Little Mermaid and her choices...

The classic fairytale by Hans Christiaan Andersen is the guiding principle for a series of paintings I am working on. The tragedy of her being a creature without much power to choose the life that she desires gives her little self-love. Using works from art history, I hilight emancipatory issues that are in the story.

Categories
Painting

She traded her voice for a pair of legs

The Little Mermaid and her choices...

The classic fairytale by Hans Christiaan Andersen is the guiding principle for a series of paintings I am working on. The tragedy of her being a creature without much power to choose the life that she desires gives her little self-love. Using works from art history, I hilight emancipatory issues that are in the story.

She traded her voice for a pair of legs     2019 

acrylics on canvas, 100 x 100 cm

The painting shows the Little Mermaid after her visit to the Sea Witch. She is left in a lonely environment. The light emphasizes her new legs, where there used to be a fish tail. The road to a possible life with the Prince. For this she paid with her voice, an essential part of the being of a mermaid. She will never again be able to tell her Prince and the world who she is …
“She traded her voice for a pair of legs” is after Rembrandt’s “The Bather”.

Categories
Painting

Rotte stream

Letting the water flow. At first en plein air. It had been while, painting with cold fingers, sunshine and wind on my face!  The finishing part was done in my studio, to layer the rippling water, creating movement. At river the Rotte.

Rotte stream    2021  
acrylics on canvas, 100 x 100 cm    2000,-

Categories
Lemons Performance

Wonderslices

Charge your life with magic - practical and easy.

The Wonderslices are a series of objects made from lemonslices and mixed media, framed between glass with stainless steel fittings, in a wooden foot.

These Wonderslices are created to work on specific areas. For example, if a person is taking on a new adventure in life in the coming year, the Success Slice could enchant that path, sprinkle it with opportunities and self-confidence. The Transition Slice would be a very thoughtful present to support somebody letting go of a habit she or he wants to get rid of…

There are seven Slices: Welfare, Fertility, Strength, Communication, Success, Love and Transition.
Every slice is ritualy prepared and dried using ancient as well as experimental techniques to enhance particular energies.

How to make it work: Stand in front of the Slice whenever you want it to charge you. Make sure direct celestial light is shining through the glass upon you (sunlight, moonlight, stars/planets/comets). For as long and as often as you want to. You can also put the Slice in front of a window. The light will continuously flow through the lemon and soak your home in its magic.

Note: Direct sunlight will always transform anything. It will at some point change the colour and appearance of the Wonderslice.

A truly magical gift.
Let me know which one is for you.

Welfare

Sun / life!

Fertility

Moon / tides

Strength

Mars / battle 

Communication

Mercury / flow

Success

Jupiter / greatness

Love

Venus / beauty

Transition

Saturn / boundary 

In this video you can see me preparing the lemons used for making the Wonderslices.

Categories
Painting

The blue sky

Here is the world as we want to see it, pleasant and beautiful. Everything is good, the air is clear, the water is fresh and there is yellow-golden sunlight. But, below the surface is that which we would rather not see. The being in the water is asphyxiated.

Swimming and hunting, like sharks with a human body, we come across our own poison.

 

Acrylics are used as matt as possible, without medium, with gesso, zinc- and titaniumwhite. The yellow is partly oilpaint. This makes the sunlight the most intense colour in the painting.

The blue sky 
acrylics & oil on canvas, 200 x 200 cm
€ 4000,-