About – Jerney de Wilde

About me

Hi, and thank you for visiting!

My name is Jerney and I’m an illustrator and printmaker. I live and work in The Hague, the Netherlands, with my two daughters ♥.

Inspired by nature, history, folklore and magic, I try to capture the importance of the little things in life and moments or feelings that are precious to me.

My projects focus on drawing, printmaking techniques and murals, or any other technique that interests me to create the ideas I have in mind. Artistic Research in magic, plant life and the human mind is a big part of my work.

I studied Illustration and Fine Art at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam (NL).

Photo by Bertus Gerssen @ Grafische Werkplaats Den Haag

Main Activities

Making Drawings, Prints and Murals & Artistic Research
My projects revolve around working with drawing and printmaking techniques to create original artworks and illustrated products. I also spend my time studying plants and trying to make natural inks from the plants in my garden.
Teaching Courses & Workshops
in art and nature education
Join my current Medieval Botanical Illustration workshop to get introduced with printmaking or check out our BeestjesBende lessons for children, bringing Art and Nature education together.
Coordination & Support
at Grafische Werkplaats
At Grafische Werkplaats Den Haag I coordinate parts of the Education activities and support the Technical Advisors by improving and structurising their systems. This gives them more time to facilitate artists in their printmaking projects.
Designing & Illustrating
Commissioned Work
I’m not taking any commissions at the moment.

View full resume

Photo by Veronica Veerkamp @ Mesh Print Club

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Inspiration

My biggest source of inspiration comes from a deeply rooted interest in the history of folklore and the belief in magic.

Specifically the stories of Witches and their knowledge of nature, their strength and their openly exposed femininity. These strenghts, that become the reasons they were hunted, have always fascinated me in life and in my creative work.

The social-economical conditions for witch craze to occur and witchcraft being prosecuted as a ‘gendered crime’ still connects sorcery to several aspects of contemporary feminism. Many of my projects are somehow related to these themes.

Luckily, making art is also the most constructive way to tame my everlasting pondering mind ♥.

Techniques

Drawing is the foundation of all my work. Everything starts on paper and then evolves into a painting or a printmaking technique of choice. I ♥ working with traditional methods, because they surprise me and get me out of my head and into the material.

Recently I started painting murals, which is very different because of the scale. For me, drawing is really someting intimate, focusing on little details, being in my own little bubble and has a calming effect. Making murals is very public, physical and energizing, so that is a welcome addition to the mix!

For digital work, my Imac with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and my Wacom Intuos drawing tablet have always been an important part of my trusty toolkit. Now also having an Ipad with Procreate, I can work a lot more intuitively in those techniques ♥