Linda Nieuwstad

Fabric sculptor

©Brabants Museum by Etienne Oldeman Photography

©Royal Dutch Airlines

Living in a larger-than-life floral world

Linda is inspired by 17th and 18th century paintings
She makes pansies the size of dinner plates...
...and roses as large as coffee tables

“I started making large-sized flowers after I saw the flower paintings by 17th century painter Jan van Huysum,” says Linda Nieuwstad. “His flowers were amazingly well painted; the tulips looked fresh and alive, and even the flies were impressively detailed. Watching his paintings I felt the uncontrollable urge to step inside the canvas, to touch the soft, hairy tulip stems, and smell the roses.” Inspired by this vision, Linda started welding steel and sewing fabrics to create larger-than-life flowers that maintain the freshness and colourfulness of nature. It’s more than a passion. In fact, she says that she cannot imagine a better way to spend her life.

Interview

©Royal Dutch Airlines

When did you start to imagine this giant-sized world?: I remember when I was a child, my father was trying to catch a diving beetle in the pond at the back of our house. I believed a fierce monster was living in those muddy waters. Imagining the world to be bigger than it actually is must have started that summer.
How are your flowers made?: The frames are made of solid steel, which I bend by hand and weld together. Then I cut leaves and petals out of truck tarp and make details out of wool, velvet or paper. My flowers are 100 percent handmade; that is why they look alive.
How important are imperfections in the work of an artisan?: Very! I want flowers to have little dents and leaves eaten away by insects. And I like it when flowers droop a little. A flower should have character, a soul. Without a soul, my flowers are not ready.
Is there a particular memory that you cherish?: For my first exhibition I made a flower that was 4.5m high, 6m long and 4m wide. A visitor asked to meet the artist, and he was astonished when he saw me. I am not a tall woman and he couldn’t believe that I had done it myself!

Linda Nieuwstad is a master artisan: she began her career in 2007 and she started teaching in 2011