Zoe Van Beurden
Artist Statement
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My artwork explores my relationship with the natural environment. I use bold colors, rhythmic mark-making, and unexpected compositions to capture the emotive essence of nature, while subtly distorting reality. My process involves working mainly from personal photographs and disrupting these images–sometimes through digital manipulation–before translating them onto canvas or paper. This allows the original image to morph into something both familiar and unfamiliar.
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Much of my work centers around personally important subject matter–scenes, objects, and memories–related to nature. I hope to blur the boundary between memory and imagination in my artwork. Ultimately, my work beckons the viewer to step into my world where nature is observed with an unwavering child-like wonder.
Zoe Van Beurden is a Santa Barbara-based visual artist whose practice explores her evolving relationship with the natural world. Born in 2002 and raised in California’s agriculturally rich Central Valley, her earliest inspirations came from watching her grandparents nurture their gardens.
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Van Beurden’s paintings evoke the sensuous qualities of nature through bold color palettes, expressive brushwork, and unique compositions. Drawing frequently from her own photographs, she transforms moments of quiet observation into vibrant paintings, blurring the boundary between memory and environment. Van Beurden earned her BA in art from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She currently works as the Lead Teaching Artist at Slingshot / Alpha Art Studio, supporting the creative practices of artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Van Beurden has exhibited in galleries and museums across Central and Southern California, including the Santa Paula Art Museum, UC Santa Barbara’s Art, Design, & Architecture Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara.