Erna Basten is a Dutch artist (b.1985) specializing in painting. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Hogeschool voor Kunsten Utrecht. Combined with her bachelor Medical Biology degree and masters Science Communication with Honours degree from Radboud University makes her operating at the brink of both fields.
Erna’s studio is based in Amsterdam, where she works for over 12 years now. That said, she also loves to work on the go – always open to find new impressions and perspectives.
Erna Basten is inspired by the wonders of nature and the universe. Her work is abstract, vibrant, and full of movement – with shapes that evoke energy and dynamism. She draws inspiration from natural phenomena, ranging from microscopic cell structures to macroscopic images of the cosmos. She pulls information from science articles and techno music.
Erna’s career started as a regular painter, working with acrylics on canvas, but later evolved into digital painting. She still uses both, and this combination allows her to explore both the tactile and digital dimensions of art. Her process is intuitive: ‘I start with an archival photo of something that interests me, then add a color that draws me in, let the paint move freely, and respond to what emerges. Through continuous adding, removing, and reshaping, each piece evolves until it finds its own sense of balance. The painting is finished when I see that it has the right to be alive.’
With her work she aims to transmit a moment of wonder, a sense of joy, her works reflect a vivid kind of stillness. She is trying to to capture it all, from micro to macro, in one work.
