Almost every morning, Fransje can be found in her studio in the old Douwe Egberts factory. ‘A new canvas I first roll dark. Black, brown or dark red’ This way she concentrates and shuts out the world. ‘Because white becomes more powerful on a dark carpet pad. And all colors also become more intense when you apply more layers of paint. So rather ten thin layers than one thick blob.’ Fransje works with acrylic paint, in combination with sand and paint thickeners. She uses spatulas and sponges, and putty knives to scratch into the paint and accentuate layering.
Her canvases form a diary of what occupies her mind. Her feelers catch a lot and she emotionally digests those impressions of encounters, experiences or news. Then she throws them out on canvases. Not according to a plan, but guided by her intuition and her mind. In essence, this is how she organizes the things in life that stir her.
Nature is a recurring theme in her work. Yet Fransje never paints on location or from photographs. Indeed, she is not often in nature. Her paintings come about by visualizing her own impressions, memories and experiences. The people who look at them associate the resulting images with a cherished landscape or the view from their bedroom window. For example, moving from The Hague to Friesland produced a series of canvases reminiscent of the Wadden. ‘In retrospect, it was a way of making friends with the horizons in my new surroundings.’
