Angela Meijer is an artist who moves between photography and painting, blending the two in unique and meaningful ways. She started as a fine art photographer in the Netherlands, capturing emotions through portraits and self-portraits. But over time, her creativity led her to painting—allowing her to express feelings and ideas beyond what a camera could capture.

In this interview, Angela shares her journey from photography to painting and how she now combines both. She talks about her love for flowers and how they’ve become a major inspiration in her work. She also explains how colors, textures, and layers help her express emotions that words sometimes can’t. Through her art, Angela hopes to bring beauty, emotion, and even a sense of home into people’s lives. Whether through paintings, textiles, or photography, her work invites us to see the world—and our feelings—through a new lens.

Angela Meijer is a featured artist in our book “101 Art Book: Portrait Edition .” You can explore her journey and the stories of other artists by purchasing the book here: https://shop.artstoheartsproject.com/products/the-creative-process-book

Meijer graduated with a BFA in fine art photography nearly 30 years ago and has been exploring visual language ever since. Her photography can be found in International collections and publications. Twenty years ago, Angela traded in her camera, invested in paints and canvases, and started painting daily from the inside out. Her artwork was primarily abstract and nonrepresentational until a few years ago. Many of these paintings are in private and corporate collections. In 2021, Angela invested in a camera and started photographing and painting flowers. Her current artwork is inspired by the language of flowers.

1.   Your journey has moved between photography and painting—what draws you to explore different mediums?  

I think I’ve always been a painter, and I’ve always loved how rich layering mediums can add to the depth and texture of artwork. The painting department at my art school wasn’t a good fit, so I decided to study photography. Photography is painting with light, yet I’ve never been fond of photography paper. As an art student and later as a fine art photographer, I was always pushing the boundaries of ways to print my photography work through transfer prints, silk screens, and photo etchings. I would also layer my photographs with thin, semi-translucent Japanese paper and draw new layers of imagined imagery with wax pastels on the paper. Since my teenage years, I would collage and paint over my photographs, and I have used photography in many printmaking techniques. I felt that drawing and painting allowed me to bring imagery that the camera couldn’t capture.

Inspired by the beauty of flowers, I began photographing them and incorporating floral imagery into my abstract compositions, crafting dreamlike inner gardens filled with vibrant colors.

Angela Meijer

2.   How did the language of flowers become such a powerful inspiration in your work? 

Living in the Netherlands, I always had fresh flowers in my house and visited the flower market often. We brought flowers as a gift when visiting loved ones, and a few years ago, I got a few books on the meaning and symbolism of different flowers. I began photographing flowers in my own garden and traveling to other botanical gardens and began incorporating them into my artwork.

3.   You’ve spoken about making the unseen visible—how does that idea shape your creative process?  

When I began to paint abstractly, I found that I could say so much more than I could through photography alone through color and movement. It’s like what was inside me took shape and form. I really resonate with the Georgia O’Keefe quote: “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way – things I had no words for.” I don’t always have English for what I paint, so it becomes a visual language for emotions and memories and for processing world events in a way that I often don’t see until I paint it. It’s a language beyond words, but it still speaks, and everyone experiences the artwork from their own perspective. I always love asking people what they see. It’s never what I expect, and I especially love this about abstract art.

4.   Your work is rich in color, texture, and layers—what emotions or experiences do you hope to evoke?   

It depends on the piece and the placement. However, I don’t presume to be able to steer the emotions and experiences my work evokes as imagery is so subjective. I could see freedom in a piece, and someone else could feel trapped looking at the same piece. If I make textiles for homes, I hope the artwork will bring the goodness of color into the client’s home. I want to create beautiful rugs, upholstery, wallpaper, and artwork that transform an interior into one that is brimming with life, joy, and peace, inspires creativity, and feels like home. If I am making artwork that evokes more difficult emotions, I think the book form is most often the best format for my artwork. It’s not often work I’d want to see all the time, live with (except as a book on my shelf) on a large scale. I have done large-scale portraits portraying difficult and complicated familial emotions. Those portraits were created for a municipal art collection. I think this is an appropriate place to challenge thinking and bring the public into experiences that give them new perspectives and insights.

My exploration of surface pattern design has extended the emotional depth of my work, exploring ways to bring the goodness of color and expression into living spaces.

Angela Meijer

5.   How has your creative perspective evolved since returning to photography alongside painting?  

I see now that I have always combined photography and painting, but I have found new ways to do this on a large scale without making silkscreens with the development of giclée printing on canvas. I have also learned to use Photoshop to combine layers of my photographic and painted artwork. I have also learned to make repeat patterns in this work, opening up a whole new world of possibilities. This allows me to play with color and experiment a lot more before committing the work to canvas or fabric.

6.  What excites you most about your current work, and where do you see it heading next?  

My current work is larger and becoming much more abstract, yet with nuanced layers of color and recognizable imagery. I have created a space in our lower level to create a larger series of paintings and textiles.

 Angela’s story shows how creativity can keep growing and changing. Whether she’s working with paint, photos, or textiles, she’s always finding new ways to express emotions and connect with people. Her work encourages us to see beauty in unexpected places and to explore the feelings that colors and textures can bring. As she looks ahead, Angela is excited to keep pushing her art further, exploring new ideas, and sharing her vision with the world. To learn more about Angela, click the following links to visit her profile.

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