The polder as home, pointillism as language. This collection of paintings of the polder brings together original works by Marcel Straver: from misty mornings and blooming verges to pollarded willows and sunsets above hay bales, all painted in his distinctive bold pointillist style. Would you like to buy a polder painting, or have you spotted a work you would like to see in person first? Use the ‘take an option’ button and Marcel will get in touch as soon as possible. Interested in commissioning a unique or personal work? Call or email for the possibilities (see Contact).
See also: Info Paintings.
Marcel Straver lives and works in Waverveen, in the heart of the Green Heart of the Netherlands. The polder is his immediate surroundings, his daily source of inspiration and the theme he knows most deeply. Ditches, willows, meadows, mist, cows, a horizon that feels both distant and close: these are images he sees again and again and finds a new way to paint each time.
This collection includes works such as Polder Paradise, Polder Posts, Sunrise Stripes and Poppy Party. Every work is an original and available directly through the website. Commissioned paintings are also possible.
The polder landscape holds a special place in Dutch art history. The wide skies, the flat land, the water that is everywhere: these are qualities that make the landscape unique and have inspired painters for centuries. The Dutch Masters built their reputations on it, and contemporary artists continue to be drawn to it.
What makes the polder so compelling as a subject is its apparent simplicity that, on closer inspection, is full of detail. A ditch bank with reeds and flowers, a road disappearing between meadows, a farmhouse half-hidden in the mist: images that can be read differently every time, depending on the light, the season and the moment of the day.
Marcel Straver’s bold pointillist technique is particularly well suited to capturing the polder. Short brushstrokes placed side by side build the image from pure colour. Grass is not mixed to green on the palette but constructed from yellow, blue and green placed alongside each other, so that it lives and vibrates from a distance. Skies are not smoothed out but layered with warmth and movement.
Polder Paradise is a strong example: a misty morning landscape with a farmhouse nestled among trees, seen from a yellow-green meadow. The mist is not white but built from dozens of light tones that together evoke the atmosphere of an early morning. Polder Posts shows a row of pollarded willows along a polder road, tight in composition but warm in colour. And Sunrise Stripes captures the polder in early morning light, with fields and waterways running in strips toward the horizon.
The polder changes dramatically with the seasons, and that variety is clearly visible across this collection. Summer brings colour: verges full of poppies and daisies, as in Poppy Party, or a flower field along a fence as in Flower Frontier. Autumn brings warmth: a sunset above hay bales in Sunset Droppings, the light reflected in a puddle in the foreground. And sometimes summer reveals unexpected details, as in Concrete Cut, where grass and plants push up along a concrete edge, their shadows sharp and blue in the bright light.
The polder is not only a landscape but also a living environment. Cows in the meadow, a duck in the grass, people sitting on a bench in the sun: that presence makes the landscape tangible and human. In Hello Sunshine, two women sit laughing on a bench in the middle of a green field, the wide polder horizon behind them. And Dead Duck shows a duck lying in the grass, a direct and honest image of nature as it is.
Polder paintings bring something of the calm and space of the Dutch landscape into your home. They are immediately recognisable to anyone who lives here or grew up here, but for people outside the Netherlands too, the beauty of the polder landscape is directly felt. A good polder painting can open up and deepen a room.
Marcel Straver’s works are all originals, painted on canvas in acrylic. Every painting is unique and available directly through the website. Would you like to see a work in person before deciding? Take an option via the painting’s page and Marcel will get in touch to arrange a viewing. For a commissioned painting of your own favourite polder spot, neighbourhood or landscape, please get in touch via the contact page.
