Hi, I’m Lieve!

Hi, I’m Lieve Oudejans — an artist and photographer based in Groningen, the Netherlands.

Photography has been part of my life ever since I got my first camera at 13, back in high school. From that moment on, I took it everywhere — documenting what my friends and I were up to. To this day, I still carry a camera with me wherever I go. I especially love capturing the small things: plants and animals, interesting textures, and little details that often go unnoticed.

While studying Biology and Biomedical Sciences, I started looking for a creative outlet beyond photography. Inspired by M.C. Escher, I decided to try printmaking in 2015. At first, I focused mainly on etching and aquatint, but over time I also experimented with cyanotype, screen printing, and, more recently, woodblock printing.

I’ve always been fascinated by abstract and geometric patterns — and during the 2020 lockdowns, that interest grew into a full-on obsession. With all that extra time at home, I followed lots of online courses in Islamic geometry with teachers like Samira Mian, Adam Williamson, and Richard Henry. Later, I joined study trips with Art of Islamic Pattern to Fes, Morocco, and Granada, Spain, where I finally got to see in real life the incredible patterns I had been drawing.

At first, I worked mainly with watercolours and gouache to bring patterns to life, but these days I’m focusing more on combining Islamic geometry with different printmaking techniques. Right now, I’m experimenting with block printing and linocutting — and I’m excited to see where this journey takes me.