What happens when two artists with completely different visual languages decide to paint on the same canvas?

If you’ve been following me on Instagram recently, you’ve probably noticed something different happening in my studio practice. A new body of work is emerging. Not created by one artist, but by two. It all started with Instagram. Valerie Gyzel and I had been following each other’s work for quite some time. We admired one another’s artistic voice from a distance, exchanged occasional messages, and eventually decided to meet for coffee.

What began as a conversation about painting soon became a conversation about possibility. Could two artists with completely different visual languages create something together without compromising who they are? Most collaborations ask artists to meet in the middle. We decided not to.

Two Artists. Two Languages.

I’ve spent many years developing a body of work centred around powerful women. Women who possess agency. Women who take up space. Women who define themselves. My paintings are figurative, carefully composed and built through layers of drawing, paint and mixed media. Valerie’s work comes from an entirely different place. Her paintings are intuitive, expressive and abstract. She embraces spontaneity, movement and experimentation. Rather than seeing our differences as obstacles, we recognised them as possibilities.

A Studio Built for Experimentation

Earlier this year, Valerie moved into a larger studio in Rotterdam West. It quickly became the home of our collaboration. Several times each month we meet there. Sometimes I arrive carrying large canvases from my own studio. Sometimes Valerie has already started a painting. Sometimes we begin with nothing more than a blank surface. There are no rules. Some paintings begin on pristine white canvas. Others already carry months, even years of history. Works I once considered finished are reopened. New layers cover old decisions. Figures appear. Disappear. Return. Nothing is protected simply because it came first. If a painting asks for change, we allow it.

A Conversation on Canvas

People often imagine collaboration as dividing a canvas into two halves. That isn’t what happens here. We paint directly into each other’s work. Sometimes Valerie transforms one of my carefully painted figures with expressive marks and bold colour. Sometimes I respond by introducing a new female presence that changes the entire composition. One gesture invites another. Every decision becomes a response. The paintings evolve through conversation rather than planning. Looking at the finished works, people often ask:

“Who painted which part?”

It’s an understandable question. But perhaps the more interesting question is: At what point does a painting stop belonging to one artist and begin belonging to the work itself?

Standing on the Shoulders of History

Collaborations between artists have occasionally changed the course of contemporary art. One of the best-known examples remains the paintings created by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat during the 1980s. Their collaboration brought together two unmistakably different artistic identities. At the time, critics were divided. Today, those works are regarded as an important chapter in modern art history. We’re not interested in recreating that collaboration. Nor in comparing ourselves to it. But we are inspired by one timeless idea: That two distinct artistic voices can create something neither could have achieved alone.

Female Strength Meets Abstract Energy

The paintings themselves embody that dialogue. My women remain present throughout the series. They are calm. Confident. Self-possessed. Around them, Valerie’s abstract gestures introduce movement, unpredictability and emotion. The abstraction isn’t merely a background. The figures aren’t simply placed on top. Both visual languages continuously reshape one another. The result isn’t figurative painting. Nor is it abstract painting. It exists somewhere in between. A space where structure and instinct coexist.

The Beginning of a New Body of Work

What you’re seeing on social media today is only the beginning. Every week new canvases enter the studio. Some remain untouched for days before suddenly changing direction. Others evolve rapidly through dozens of interventions. We document much of this process because the making has become just as fascinating as the finished work. By the end of next month, we’ll present the first collection created through this collaboration. Not as a one-off experiment. But as the beginning of an ongoing artistic dialogue. Because perhaps the most interesting paintings aren’t created by protecting your own language. Perhaps they’re created by having the courage to let another artist speak into it.

Wendy Buiter × Valerie Gyzel

Two artists. Two visual languages.

One evolving conversation.

If you’d like to experience the works before the official presentation, or learn more about the collaboration, feel free to get in touch. We’d be delighted to welcome you to the studio in Rotterdam.