Chantal van Houten

About

Artist Chantal Van Houten was born and raised in the small town of Alphen aan den Rijn in the western Netherlands. With a natural inclination for art from a young age, she grew up drawing and painting while her friends were playing outside. Van Houten studied at the Academy of Media and Art in Amsterdam and after graduating in 2005, she worked for several years as a graphic designer. Yearning to express herself more freely, she left her job to focus on her art full-time.  Since then, her work has been exhibited in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.

For Van Houten, art is about bringing emotion. There is no greater satisfaction for her than when a painting really comes alive for the viewers, sparking their imagination and touching them.  In her own words, “the painting gives you a little tickling.”  She gets her inspiration from the people around her, from a long walk in the park, from life and from world issues.  With her primarily figurative paintings, she wants the viewer to experience different emotions with each expression and posture they see. More specifically, she wants viewers to get closer to their feelings and emotions and rethink about what’s really important to us as human beings living together in the world.