About

Artist Bio — Carien Borst

I am a Dutch visual artist and former mental-health care manager who, after fourteen years in that field, chose to follow my heart into art, creativity, and guiding others through their own inner journeys. I live and work in a 300-year-old former blacksmith’s house in ’s-Heer Arendskerke, where my studio offers both grounding and freedom for exploration.

My work is created in oil and mixed media, often enriched with natural textures. The sea and the ocean, in all their moods, rhythms, and shifting faces, are an inexhaustible source of inspiration for me. Their vastness and emotional depth mirror the inner landscapes I explore in my paintings.

Through layered, atmospheric works I seek to reveal vulnerability, strength, longing, softness, and hope: the emotional undercurrent beneath the visible world.

Since 2011, I have exhibited my work in the Netherlands and abroad, from group shows to solo exhibitions. My 2025 solo show Sea and Soul (Dutch: Zee en Ziel) in the English Church in Middelburg presented a new series centered on coastlines and the presence of the human soul within nature. In 2023, I exhibited in the historic Chapel of Hoogelande near the Zeeland coast, showing a collection that blended seascapes with intimate portraiture.

Many of my paintings have found their way into private collections, both nationally and internationally. My available artworks can be purchased directly through my website, and visitors are always welcome to schedule a visit to my art studio, where I love to share my process and works in person.

Through my art, I invite viewers into a quiet space of reflection and connection, a place where the outer landscape and the inner world meet.