In Shoreline, Kijkduin below, you can see the Dutch shores. The division between land and sea is emphasized by the fact that the work is in three separate canvases. But looking more carefully, the separation becomes blurred. The central canvas has the exclusively blue mosaic patches of the sea and the lower canvas seems to show the shore, possibly sand mixing with the waves or water breaking on rocks. When you look at the top canvas, where you would expect to see sea and sky, there is an indication of another shore. Suddenly your perspective shifts and you are either looking across a bay or looking at the same shore, but from the sea.

            Many of Mandy’s works have these added complications, where you see more complexity after a first glance. Northsea, below, is open to many interpretations, with the structure of the mosaic patches that make up the image highlighted in relief. Often, after you look at Mandy’s paitings for a while, alternative views open up or different possibilites emerge. Things are not as they first seem.

            In her trees, Mandy combines abstract shapes with realism. The Tree of Seasons below has all four seasons integrated on one canvas. Mandy created four separate canvases for trees of each season and those for spring and winter are below.

            Blood Forest below shows the roots as well as the tree tops. Mandy seems to see trees mainly as complex networks of tendrils and branches which she can use to present colours and shapes.

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