Sara van Vliet

'Are we dreamers' 120 x 150 cm, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 2026

'The realm of longing' Oil and acrylics on canvas, 150 x 170 cm, 2026

Cafe de Bedstee (a portrait of the evening) Ceramic dinner attributes, 71 pieces at the table. 120 x 60 cm Unique work

'In your head' Oil and acrylic on canvas, 170 x 150 cm, 2026

'You had a temper, like my jealousy' 155 x 120 cm, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 2026

‘But now I only freeze’ 120 x 150 cm, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 2026

Other >>

In the summer of 2024, I started documenting my solo cycling journeys through short video vlogs, originally intended for friends and family. What started as a casual form of sharing gradually became a more integrated part of my practice. Almost a year later, I now realize that the act of long-distance cycling itself, and making those vlogs, became an extension of my artistic research.

For a long time, I kept my athletic and artistic lives separate. I competed in long-distance speed skating at a high level, while simultaneously pursuing art at the art academy. Both environments urged me to choose, to commit fully to one discipline. And they were right in one respect: focus is necessary for depth. I eventually stepped away from competitive sports, but the physical commitment, the repetition, and the mental endurance that defined that part of my life never disappeared.

In recent years, I've been searching for a way to bring these two apparently distant practices, art and endurance sport, into conversation. Both rely on discipline, dedication, and a capacity for reflection.

Cycling, especially over long distances, offers a particular kind of mental space: a state of slowness, absorption, and quiet awareness. It is within that space that new ideas surface, often uninvited.

Each year, I set out on a long solo cycling trip, and along the way I make a daily work on paper, it can be a drawing or a watercolour painting, always from direct observation, sometimes from the landscape immediately in front of me once I've set up camp for the night. And for Istanbul I’m looking more for seneries I want to capture.
These drawings form an analogue record of the journey, a diary written in line rather than word.

I'm particularly interested in the influence of repetition, fatigue, and solitude on the act of drawing. What happens when you commit to a gesture every day, under changing conditions and in a state of physical depletion? How does the body shape the hand, and how does movement shape perception?

The resulting works take different forms depending on the journey, publications, paintings developed from the visual memory of the road, and short films, together forming an ongoing body of work that explores the relationship between artistic and athletic labor, between the studio and the road.

Or maybe even more, how to use the road as part of my studio?

A publication will serve as a tangible reflection of the project: a slower, more enduring counterbalance to the daily video vlogs I will share (on Instagram @cafedebedstee) during the trips. If you're interested in receiving a copy or supporting the project, you can buy it here.

My earlier my work, and you can follow me for new paintings on: @doorsaravanvliet :)

Where it all starts // 195cm x 170cm // Plaster, acrylic and spray paint

Waking up // 195 x 160 cm // Acrylic, ink, ecoline and airbrush on canvas // 2024

Watching mountains in Zurich // 150 x 170 cm // Acrylic, plaster and spray paint on canvas

7 weeks in an Opel Corsa // 300 x 180 cm // Acrylics, plaster and spray paint on canvas // 2022

Parents of my ex // 195cm x 170cm // Plaster, acrylics and spraypaint // 2022

Room from all perspectives // 320 x 195 cm // Acrylics, ink and airbrush on canvas // 2024

'Laundry wrack' // 190 x 150 cm // Acrylics, ink and airbrush on canvas // 2023

Thanks that you invited me for Christmas dinner // 165cm x 145cm // plaster, acrylic and spray paint // 2022

︎ For more paintings check my instagram