Tanja Moderscheim

Tanja Moderscheim (PhD, SBAF) is a Dutch painter specialising in flower and still life paintings. She explores the artistic traditions and heritage of the 17th century Dutch Golden Age, merging a scientific approach with a quest to express poetry in her paintings.

As a nod to the renewed interest in naturalism in the 1600s, she portrays typical subjects of this era such as flowers, Delftware, birds and fruit. Her large heritage tulip collection, which she grows in her garden, includes tulips first developed in Holland in the late 1500s and 1600s.

She employs her science background and attention to detail to stay true to the traditions of the 17th century. For example, she applies the techniques and pigments used by painters in that era, ensuring that the pigments are chemically identical. She uses these in line with old manuscripts and modern academic literature.

As a counterweight to this technical approach, she seeks to instil poetry in her work by focusing on light in darkness: raking light and space elevate the objects in her paintings.