What is a landscape other than a framed part of land and sky? The Romantics allowed the landscape to be more than just a backdrop for (biblical) stories. The landscape became an active participant in the story; a story that was less about a beginning and an end and more about a spiritual feeling. People living in cities need to travel through nature to feel nature within themselves. Once their rational thoughts have run around and worn themselves out, they may become a waiting blank canvas unto which their surroundings can impress themselves.

Just as people are wired to see a face in two dots, there is something about  horizontal shapes that can easily evoke a landscape. The Escapist Landscapes are sometimes abstract, sometimes just barely figurative. They are always landscapes in the metaphorical sense; spaces for the eye to wander and emotions to settle.

Rini Brakkee was admitted to the Rietveld Academy with a portfolio of abstract paintings in 2002. Now, after 20 years of figurative art she returns to abstraction to explore what it means to live in congruence with one’s intuition, aesthetics, and personal nature.