Marissa Oosterlee

About the Artist

Marissa Oosterlee is a Dutch artist known for her hyperrealistic oil and airbrush portraits that invite quiet contemplation. Her work is defined by grace, stillness, and an almost meditative presence. Each portrait feels like a suspended moment—intimate, sensual, and serene—where the viewer encounters the subject in a deeply personal way. Though technically precise, her paintings move beyond realism, creating an emotional space where softness, purity, and introspection take center stage. In her celebrated series Washing Away My Sorrow, Oosterlee depicts ethereal women floating in luminous water, their faces rendered with near-photographic clarity while their surroundings dissolve into subtle abstraction. Water plays a central role in her practice—not only as subject matter, but as metaphor. Reflections, distortions, and shifting light introduce a dreamlike quality that blurs the line between realism and abstraction, grounding her work in both precision and poetry. Fascinated by the sea and its constantly changing surface, she captures the way reality transforms beneath water—fluid, layered, and in motion. Oosterlee’s work has received international recognition, including multiple awards for portraiture and hyperrealism, and has been exhibited widely across Europe and the United States. Her paintings have been shown at galleries and institutions in the Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, and the U.S., and featured in leading art publications worldwide. Collected internationally, her work resonates with viewers for its technical mastery, emotional depth, and the quiet power with which it speaks—offering moments of calm, beauty, and reflection in an otherwise fast-moving world.