Born in 1957, Flip Gaasendam studied from 1977-1982 at the Minerva Academy of Groningen. In 1988 he obtained the 'J. Egberts' price of the Pictura Association. From 1992 on, he was welcomed in the best galleries of The Netherlands.
In 1997 he participated at the ‘Painters of Minerva' exhibition, held at the same time at ‘De Twee Pauwen’ Gallery in The Hague and at Panorama Mesdag Museum. Gaasendam’s works are present in many collections, notably at the Drenthe Museum, Gasunie, ING and Unilever.
Flip Gaasendam is a forerunner of the Figurative Renewal Movement in North-Netherlands.
His neo-impressionistic touch is free and delicate, and impregnated with poetry. His pleasant and heartening painting appeals by its nostalgia, astonishes and fascinates by its lightness, and instigates an irresistible attraction. The light-playing, the space and the atmosphere are the starting points of his compositions, in other respects technically irreproachable.
Starting from a rough sketch, he begins his search for shape and color optimization, and allows himself all the means, brushes, palette knifes, rags, and even his own fingers, in order to reach the optimum expression of his subject’s atmosphere.
Flip Gaasendam is a Master in catching of intimate instants, which he likes to found in quiet public places. In his atelier he is immortalizing Maja his favorite model in kimono, in order to give her an additional almost mystic intimacy. This allowed him to realize a particularly inspired collection of paintings, which explains why his work is so largely appreciated and collected.