I was introduced to Dutch artist Sandra Derks through a friend of mine who is familiar with my interest in painting in general and in quality Dutch painters in particular. 
The first time Sandra and I met, we quickly began talking about our lives and the many trials with being a mother, an artist, a lover, an ex-wife, etc. 

From the very beginning, I was not only impressed by the quality of her paintings, her beauty and her – very masculine - humor but also by the struggle and tenacity with which she leads the life of an independent painter living in Amsterdam. 

More than 20 years ago, at the Rietveld, she was a rising star, not only as an artist but also as a muze. She inspired - and still does - many artists and writers thanks to her wit, her intelligence and her sharpness.

Visiting her studio for the first time a few months ago, I saw many of her big and little paintings, her drawings and watercolors.  What struck me most was not the excellent quality of her skills and the great virtuosity and variety of her paintings but the fact that her work seemed to be a perfect mirror of her life. 

It occurred to me as if all different subjects and styles in one way or another reflected the way she felt in a particular moment: nearly invisible dark men and ephemerous women with their hands in their belly, soldiers bigger than a tree, children with adult faces, a surrealistic family tree and a photorealistic portrait of a woman drinking milk in the light of a refrigerator, a group of friends enjoying an open fire at the beach.  Each and every painting told its own complex story, funny and light or dark and heavy.
 

I personally adore Sandra’s works in which she shows how she is able to stand above the situation. Her sharp observations and autobiographic iconography, as well as her irony and humor, give her paintings the personal touch which makes them powerful and unique.