The dream
that we would meet again
now has become...
the Gift ! .... more about that is coming soon
Artist Linda Van der Meeren invites you to a unique painting experience in Provence. At the foot of Mont Ventoux, she shares her passion for colour, oil painting and creativity during three-day workshops in June and September 2026. Here, painting becomes more than a technique: it is a way of bringing stories, emotions and inspiration to life on canvas.
Inspirational painting in France — discover the passion for oil painting and create your own artwork at the foot of Mont Ventoux.
Since childhood, Linda has been fascinated by colours, drawings and ink. She also listened attentively to the war stories shared within her family. Gradually, it became clear that she viewed both life and death from a peaceful and beautiful perspective: life does not end with the death of the body. She illustrated the entire story of her uncle, a resistance hero who was executed during the war, and of her grandfather, who survived a concentration camp.
Her oil paintings came only after creating around two hundred drawings about the First and Second World Wars. The combination of the roughness of charcoal and the richness of oil colours on the same canvas became a bold expression of hope, opening visitors’ eyes in a different way during exhibitions.
During that period, she met her husband, Bart, who encouraged her in all her passions. He supported her research efforts so that the wartime scenes depicted on her canvases would tell the correct stories. Gradually, her work expanded to include the role of women during wartime.
Bart and Linda were soulmates and, creatively speaking, perfectly matched partners.
We’ll Meet Again
“Nothing is stronger than the idea whose time and passion have come.”
This is Linda Van der Meeren’s guiding quote.
“Even more beautiful, I was given the opportunity to develop all my ideas with passion. Bart made sure I never settled for the standard rhythm of everyday life. He lifted me towards ‘further, more, higher, more beautiful’… We were happy and looked towards a beautiful horizon.”
In 2021, tragedy struck their family and their two daughters. Bart passed away after a five-week battle with cancer.
“Suddenly, I had become the living scene from my own paintings: the young widow standing at the grave of her soldier in a war we could never win… We’ll meet again…”
When I painted such scenes, I often felt that death existed only on the other side of the canvas, and that the transition was entirely peaceful and right.
But the painting continued…
But the painting continued. It came from her heart and from her grief, but also from the determination that pushed her forward.
Living with respect for Bart, but also with faith in life beyond death.
Painting became even more her safe harbour.
Working with clay, which she and Bart had developed together over the years, also grew and expanded.
Along the way, she wrote down her experiences. The words flowed from her pen of grief, just as the clay kept calling her to create.
“When I look back, I see that being creative is one of life’s greatest gifts.
Together with my most faithful friend, Cooper, my brown-pawed companion, who became indispensable to me.
I searched for and found the courage to survive each day and to learn how to live with a profound loss.
Without hesitation, I continue to follow what feels right and meaningful to me.
Through painting and clay, I tell a story of hope filled with colour.
And I do it in my own way.
It has become more than surviving.
It has become a desire to live.
Consciously.
And in colour.”
Do you feel inspired to paint?
“Do not let the thought of ‘I can’t do this’ stop you.
Allow yourself to be inspired by what lives inside you.
Together we can create beautiful things, full of hope and reaching far beyond the canvas.
I firmly believe that ‘nothing is stronger than the idea for which passion was born.’
Everything begins with the desire to create.
Forget the thought: ‘I cannot do this.’
Talking about passion and love, about death and continuing to live, becomes very different when you say:
‘I want to try. I want to do this. I will give it a chance.’
Willpower often hides in the smallest corners.
Do you feel the urge to paint?
Would you like to feel clay between your hands?
Then let us begin your story together.
You may be surprised by the treasures hidden within you.”
Linda offers workshops in painting, clay work and remembrance, always centred around stories that fill the heart with joy.
Because every story and every emotion can be transformed into something creative.
Including yours.
Experience with Linda
- Inspiring workshops in France
- Writing and talking about death with hope
- Remembering the heroes and women of wartime
- Connecting and healing through clay
- Talking helps, but everything begins with listening
My heart tore apart
when you died.
I wanted to scratch
and carve
into the white canvas.
I searched
for the deepest black,
but even that
would not come.
Because
the brush called me
and my hand kept painting.
It chose the colours
where, for a moment,
I no longer could.
ier om te bewerken.Artist Linda Van der Meeren invites you to a unique painting experience in Provence. At the foot of Mont Ventoux, she shares her passion for colour, oil painting and creativity during three-day workshops in June and September 2026. Here, painting becomes more than a technique: it is a way of bringing stories, emotions and inspiration to life on canvas.
Inspirational painting in France — discover the passion for oil painting and create your own artwork at the foot of Mont Ventoux.
Since childhood, Linda has been fascinated by colours, drawings and ink. She also listened attentively to the war stories shared within her family. Gradually, it became clear that she viewed both life and death from a peaceful and beautiful perspective: life does not end with the death of the body. She illustrated the entire story of her uncle, a resistance hero who was executed during the war, and of her grandfather, who survived a concentration camp.
Her oil paintings came only after creating around two hundred drawings about the First and Second World Wars. The combination of the roughness of charcoal and the richness of oil colours on the same canvas became a bold expression of hope, opening visitors’ eyes in a different way during exhibitions.
During that period, she met her husband, Bart, who encouraged her in all her passions. He supported her research efforts so that the wartime scenes depicted on her canvases would tell the correct stories. Gradually, her work expanded to include the role of women during wartime.
Bart and Linda were soulmates and, creatively speaking, perfectly matched partners.
We’ll Meet Again
“Nothing is stronger than the idea whose time and passion have come.”
This is Linda Van der Meeren’s guiding quote.
“Even more beautiful, I was given the opportunity to develop all my ideas with passion. Bart made sure I never settled for the standard rhythm of everyday life. He lifted me towards ‘further, more, higher, more beautiful’… We were happy and looked towards a beautiful horizon.”
In 2021, tragedy struck their family and their two daughters. Bart passed away after a five-week battle with cancer.
“Suddenly, I had become the living scene from my own paintings: the young widow standing at the grave of her soldier in a war we could never win… We’ll meet again…”
When I painted such scenes, I often felt that death existed only on the other side of the canvas, and that the transition was entirely peaceful and right. Exactly as it should be.