Inspired by her local landscape, Canada-based artist Christa Rijneveld creates pen and ink drawings of mountainous scenery. Each stark and stylized piece is rendered entirely in black and white, allowing the artist to focus on form and experiment with tonality.
Though most of Rijneveld’s inked landscapes depict different scenes, they have compositional characteristics in common. In each depiction, a line drawing of rocky mountains dominates the foreground. The artist expertly achieves different levels of shading by changing the direction, thickness, and spacing of the lines. These rigidly contoured forms contrast the background, which features a sky composed of tiny, orderly dots.
Given the level of detail evident in each seemingly perfect pointillist backdrop, you may be surprised to learn Rijneveld completes each scene without the help of any aids. “Yesterday I got the question whether I use a stencil to draw the sky,” Rijneveld wrote on Instagram. “I very much don’t. Imperfection is pretty great.”
The artist’s acceptance of faults and flaws speaks directly to her principles. While she is undoubtedly talented, she does not practice art for praise or the pursuit of perfection. Rather, she enjoys drawing for its cathartic purposes. “I started drawing not because I thought I might be good at it,” she says. “I started because I needed to. I needed something to occupy my brain and hands, something that would help me live in the moment. This is my therapy.”
If you’re interested in supporting the artist by acquiring a print, card, or other pen-and-ink-inspired product, be sure to check out her Society 6 page.
Inspired by her new home in Canada, Netherlands-born artist Christa Rijneveld creates pointillist line drawings of mountains.
She combines lines with dots to create one-of-a-kind landscapes.
Christa Rijneveld: Facebook | Instagram | Society 6