CV
Linda
Roffel
PAINTER
Education & Background
Drawing Qualification — LO Tekenakte, The Netherlands
Qualified drawing teacher.
Professional Painting Education — Werkgroep Kunsten Ateliers, Driebergen, The Netherlands
Studied painting under Erik Lemmens.
Psychology — The Netherlands
Studies with a focus on learning and behavioural difficulties.
Linda Roffel worked in education as a teacher and remedial teacher while continuing to develop her artistic practice.
Over time, painting evolved from a parallel creative pursuit into the central focus of her professional life.
Her artistic development has been characterised by an exploration of the boundary between free, intuitive painting and figurative representation. Models increasingly became a source of inspiration for posture, proportion and light, without determining the final image.
Working exclusively with a palette knife, Roffel has developed a distinctive painting technique that combines expressive textures with a remarkable sensitivity to the human form.
Artist Profile
Linda Roffel is a Dutch visual artist whose work moves between figurative and abstract painting. The female figure is a recurring subject, often portrayed from behind or absorbed in a private moment.
Her painting is intuitive rather than predetermined. Roffel works predominantly in acrylic, using the palette knife as an essential part of her technique. She often starts with a deliberately restricted palette and builds colour, skin, structure and depth directly on the canvas.
The identity and story of the women she portrays are rarely fully revealed. Instead, gesture, posture, colour and texture leave space for the viewer to create a personal interpretation.
Roffel lived and worked for many years in Bilthoven in the Netherlands. Her work has subsequently been exhibited internationally, including in New York and southern Spain.
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Exhibitions & International Art Events
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Regionale Kunstdag — Jaarbeurs Utrecht, The Netherlands. Selected as Best Artist by a professional jury.
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Kunstroute Mechelen — Mechelen, Belgium.
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Forms and Formalities — Agora Gallery, New York, USA.
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Galerie Vier Hoog Achter — Zeist, The Netherlands.
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Artwalk International Art Event & Workshop — Cómpeta, Málaga, Spain.
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Museo Industrial del Azúcar — Motril, Granada, Spain.
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Beurs van Berlage — Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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Colorfield Performance — Sloten, The Netherlands.
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Artwalk International Art Event — Cómpeta, Málaga, Spain.
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Triangle of Life — Galerie Imspa, Ridderkerk, The Netherlands.
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Castle of Rhoon Exhibition — Rhoon, The Netherlands.
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Exhibition & Live Painting — Kitty Harri's Sculpture Garden, near Motril, Spain.
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Art Fair & Live Painting — Amersfoort, The Netherlands.
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Kunstplein Cahen — Amersfoort, The Netherlands.
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Artwalk International Art Event — Cómpeta, Málaga, Spain.
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Gubbio Biennale — Gubbio, Umbria, Italy.
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Nerja Biennial — Nerja, Spain.
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Vrouwenzaken — Galerie Imspa, Ridderkerk, The Netherlands.
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Palazzo Petrignani — Amelia, Italy.
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Museo Mauro Zelli — Leonessa, Italy.
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Chiostro di San Francesco — Civita Castellana, Italy.
United States
2016 — Forms and Formalities
Agora Gallery, Chelsea, New York City
Linda Roffel was selected as one of the international artists participating in Forms and Formalities at Agora Gallery in Chelsea, New York.
Exhibition: 1–21 April 2016
Opening reception: 7 April 2016
Agora Gallery
530 West 25th Street
Chelsea, New York City
The exhibition brought together artists working across a spectrum from highly representational to abstract art, with participants from different countries and artistic backgrounds.
The New York exhibition marked an important international chapter in Roffel's artistic journey.
United States
2016 — Forms and Formalities
Agora Gallery, Chelsea, New York City
Linda Roffel was selected as one of the international artists participating in Forms and Formalities at Agora Gallery in Chelsea, New York.
Exhibition: 1–21 April 2016
Opening reception: 7 April 2016
Agora Gallery
530 West 25th Street
Chelsea, New York City
The exhibition brought together artists working across a spectrum from highly representational to abstract art, with participants from different countries and artistic backgrounds.
The New York exhibition marked an important international chapter in Roffel's artistic journey.
Spain
2017 — 9th Cómpeta Art Walk
Cómpeta, Málaga
Roffel participated in the ninth annual Cómpeta Art Walk, an international art event held throughout the historic mountain village of Cómpeta in Andalusia.
The event brought together 38 international artists exhibiting in galleries, studios, shops and temporary exhibition spaces around the village.
Contemporary artist Emma Plunkett, who exhibited alongside Roffel, described Roffel's work as focusing particularly on folds of fabric and the female back.
Spain
2018 — Galería Luz de la Vida
Cómpeta, Málaga
Three works by Linda Roffel were selected for an exhibition at Galería Luz de la Vida from February until mid-March 2018.
The exhibition documentation describes Roffel's technique as working in acrylic with a palette knife and usually limiting herself to a small number of pigments, from which she creates structure, depth and transparency.
Artistic Practice
The female figure has become one of the defining themes of Linda Roffel's work.
Women are frequently portrayed from behind. Faces and identities are often secondary to posture, form and atmosphere. This creates an unusual relationship between subject and viewer: we are allowed into an intimate moment without being given the complete story.
Roffel's process is strongly intuitive. Rather than fully designing a painting beforehand, she allows the image to develop through the physical act of painting.
The palette knife plays a central role. A restricted number of pigments are mixed and layered directly on the canvas to create subtle changes in colour, texture, transparency and depth.
Models have been used as inspiration for posture, anatomy and the fall of light, but the finished painting is not intended as a literal portrait.
For Roffel, the final work should retain enough openness for the viewer to create a story of their own.