Ruth Griffioen

I’ve always been creative. As a child, I even chose my secondary school partly because of its art classes. Years later, at a school reunion, my former art teacher asked me if I was still doing something with my imagination.

I once dreamed of going to art school, but ended up studying Dutch Language and Culture at the University of Amsterdam instead. I fell in love with the city and the people I met there. Creative, thoughtful, sometimes melancholic. Their stories and inner worlds fascinated me, and still do today.

I built a career in marketing, where creativity was still an important part of my work. But I missed making things with my own hands, simply for the joy of creating.

Between work and raising three children, there was rarely time or space for painting. An easel and tubes of paint stood waiting in our shed in Amsterdam. The desire to paint never really disappeared. It just had to wait.

After years filled with work, family life and some difficult experiences, I finally found the time and space to pick up my brushes again in the summer of 2026.

What started as rediscovering an old passion quickly became something much more. I’m now exploring my own style, combining acrylic paint and pastels with warm colours, expressive shapes and stories inspired by people and everyday life.

It feels like returning to something that was always part of me. And in many ways, I’m only just getting started.