Schuttelaar Dutch, b. 1974

Suzan Schuttelaar (1974, Gouda) began her education at the Grafisch Lyceum in Utrecht. She then successfully completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, where she felt for the first time that she had found her true calling. Being able to spend seven days a week doing what you really love.

Schuttelaar masters various genres, but above all feels like a creative artist and tries to break away from the label of portrait painter for which she is best known. This is partly due to her participation in the Dutch programme “Sterren op het Doek” (Stars on Canvas) and the prestigious Dutch Portrait Prize, in which Schuttelaar won 2nd Prize People's Choice 2025 and 1st Prize People's Choice 2023.

As a painter, she starts from a number of classical principles of painting and combines them here and there with the loose touch of impressionism. Increasingly, she is moving away from the flat surface and her work is becoming more spatial. Every person inspires her in a personal way, every face has its own expression and its own past. That is why she tries to tell a story with each work, based on her individual interpretation. People continue to occupy a central place in her work. Above all, the work must be a challenge to create and is often a lengthy and physically exhausting process.