tekeningen | annavangerve

drawings

Portraits (2025- ...)

In this ongoing project, I create portraits of close family and friends. The portraits are figurative and recognizable; everyone who is portrayed remains clearly identifiable. At the same time, the project goes beyond pure realism: color, composition, and line work are deliberately used to reveal the personality, emotions, and stories of the people depicted.

Bridge Builder

This series of drawings is the outcome of a research project about my grandfather. He was an engineer. For several months, I followed his 1956 diary and took every train journey he recorded. In addition, I visited the bridges in the Netherlands that he helped design.

Model Drawings

Other

Between land and sea (2023)

This project originated from a design competition for a new medal of honor from the municipality of Dijk en Waard. I designed two tokens: The Reclaimed Land in appreciation of long-term commitment to society and The Hydropower in appreciation of a special achievement. The latter was chosen as the winning design and will from now on find its way to people who have done something special or courageous for the municipality of Dijk en Waard. For the designs I looked at how the history of the municipality has determined the character of the area and how to translate this into an image. The tangle of islands of Langedijk, which originated from marshland, the tight allotment pattern of Heerhugowaard, the result of the reclamation of the Grote Waert lake, and the shape of the current municipality of Dijk en Waard were the guiding principles in the design. Together, the tokens represent the relationship between man and nature and a country created by man. The height differences in the design refer both to the natural process in which pieces of land are washed away by the water and to the human process of constructing dikes and draining areas.