Welcome, and thank you for being here.

This self-guided reflection tour is an invitation to spend time with the artworks and poems in Topophilia: Landscapes of Belonging, noticing what stirs, settles, or surprises you. Not as something to analyze or get “right,” but as something already meaningful in your own life.

Suggestions for walking the tour

At each stop, you’re invited to begin with the artwork itself. Spend a little time looking before reading anything. Notice what draws your attention, what you sense in your body, and what memories, images, or feelings quietly appear.

Afterward, you can read the artwork’s story and the accompanying reflective questions. These questions are not instructions or tests. They are gentle openings. You don’t need to answer all the questions - or any of them. Holding a question can open curiosity, sensitivity, imagination, and care - and that matters more than the answers to the questions.

You’re welcome to jot down some notes of your reflections - though nothing needs to be written or remembered unless you want it to be.

There’s no need to complete the whole tour in one visit. You’re welcome to pause, wander, skip ahead, return later, or come back on another day. Both museum entry and this tour are free.

Above all, enjoy it and trust yourself. There is no right pace, no right response, and no right outcome. Whatever you notice - or don’t - is already part of your way of belonging here.

Settling in…

Before you begin the tour, you might like to take a moment to arrive - noticing your breath, your feet on the ground, the simple fact of being here.

And when you’re ready, go ahead and begin…

Begin the Reflection Tour…

Mount the Hidden Tide and Travel Back Home (2025)

Recycled painted paper on canvas I 150 × 120 cm I €2950

Inspired by Hafiz’s poem, All the Hemispheres, this abstract seascape is about an inner journey. Boat-like forms drift across a shoreline toward the glow of a sun, moon, or the poem’s “Great Circle inside of You” rising on the horizon. Rich reds and pinks in chamber-like shapes evoke the feeling of being inside a living heart. The work speaks to the quiet courage of traveling beyond what is familiar, and the deeper voyage of finding your way back home to yourself - the birthplace of all belonging.

Take a moment to read Hafiz’s poem, displayed to the right of the artwork before reflecting on the questions.

Are there times in your life when you traveled beyond what felt familiar? What helped you find your way?
What does “home” mean to you right now - and where do you notice it living in you?

As the Sun Moves Through the Sky (2025)

Acrylic on canvas I 70 × 80 cm I €930

In the foreground, sky appears where land might be expected, suggesting the deep interconnectedness between the two. Like so much in life that we speak of as separate - people from one another, or humans from nature - sky and land are, in truth, continuous. Air moves not only above us but through soil, water, and every living being, entering our bodies with each breath. This painting reflects that shared, porous world: one atmosphere, one ecology, one belonging.

Where do you notice yourself influencing and being influenced by others?

How does sensing continuity support your feeling of belonging?

Tethered in the Drift (2025)

Recycled painted paper on canvas I 70 × 80 cm I €930

Soft blues, terracottas, and ochres form an abstract landscape where land-like shapes tilt and hang from sky-like colour blocks. The work evokes moments of disorientation, uncertainty, and grief - when the ground seems to slip away and what we thought we knew is no longer certain. Yet within these shifting forms and colours, if we look for it, there is still always a tether: a sense of grounding, connection, and balance.

How do you usually respond to uncertainty?

What grounds you or helps you to feel connected during uncertain times?

The Sky Was (2025)

Recycled painted paper and acrylic on canvas I 80 × 70 cm I €930

This work began in pure delight - an immersion in the colours, textures, and vastness of the sky. I wanted the sky and land to feel integrated rather than separate or hierarchical, because in truth they belong to one another, despite the divisions we often impose in our minds. The process was playful and sensory, guided by the simple joy of exploring colour, shape, and movement. The resulting artwork feels open and cheerful, peaceful yet alive. When I later read E.E Cummings’ poem, The Sky Was, it felt as though we had been looking at the very same sky.

Take a moment to read The Sky Was by ee cummings before reflecting on the questions.

What brings you a sense of playful delight in your life?

Where in your life might boundaries or labels be more flexible than they first appeared?

Sunburnt Sands and Sky Everywhere (2025)

Recycled painted paper on canvas I 50 × 50 cm I €550

This abstract landscape weaves terracotta and blue into a quiet dialogue between earth and sky. Land and atmosphere slip into one another, creating a delicate balance between groundedness and openness. The piece reflects the way these forces - solidity and spaciousness, rootedness and expansion - coexist in constant relationship, shaping both the natural world and our inner landscapes.

Where in your life do you need more grounding and rootedness?

Where might more openness or exploration be calling?

Even the Hard Edges Sing (2025)

Recycled painted paper on wood panel I 30 × 30 cm I €345, including frame

Composed of sharp shapes and strong divisions, this piece embraces the presence of hard edges. While boundaries can feel confining, they can also offer clarity, simplicity, and a place to begin. In this artwork, distinct colours and textures meet without blending, revealing how contrast itself can create harmony. Even the Hard Edges Sing suggests that beauty is found not only in softness, but also in the places where differences stand side by side and illuminate one another.

Which boundaries in your life have protected or clarified what matters?

How have differences - your own or others’ - created unexpected beauty in your life?

What the Falling Leaves Whisper Back (2025)

Recycled painted paper and acrylic on canvas I 90 × 80 cm I €1150

This abstract landscape captures the shimmer of autumn trees mirrored in still water - a moment of quiet release and radiant colour. This poem written in response by Cath’s friend, Beth Baugh, captures the artwork’s spirit of gentle surrender. The painting invites viewers into that same recognition: the beauty in release, the glow in one another, and the light we carry within ourselves.

Take a moment to read Beth’s poem, before reflecting on the questions….

There is joy
In letting go,
In flying into
The unknown
With abandon,
Seeing
How the sunlight
Illuminates our friends
And finally realizing
We shine as brightly.

Are there things in your life you’ve released - willingly or not -that revealed unexpected light?

Who are the people in your life whose presence helps you shine more fully?

Everything Falling, Everything Rising (2025)

Recycled painted paper on canvas I 70 × 80 cm I €930

This abstract seascape, set beneath a high horizon, moves in the same rhythms that shape both nature and human life. Its layered forms could be rising toward the light or drifting downward from it - mirroring how our emotions, energy, successes, and even our breath rise and fall. Like tides that ebb and return, the work reflects the cyclical movement of the natural world. It suggests that to rise and to fall is not failure, but part of being human, alive, and deeply connected to the earth to which we belong.

How have falling moments shaped or expanded you?

What helps you trust the rhythm of change?

What the Wind Wants You To Know (2025)

Recycled painted paper on canvas I 80 × 80 cm I €1050

Created through an intuitive process of choosing textures, shapes, and colours that felt alive in the moment, this abstract landscape reflects the gentle guidance nature offers. The work evokes the way wind, weather, and open spaces can steady us, reveal quiet wisdom, and reconnect us to something larger than ourselves. In its layered fragments and flowing forms, the painting suggests how the natural world speaks - not in words, but through sensations, metaphors, and moments of stillness that invite us to listen.

When has nature helped you feel part of something larger?

If the wind had a message for you right now, what might it be?

Seeds of Belonging (2025)

Recycled painted paper on wood panel I 44.5 × 44.5 cm I €695, including frame

Each of these nine small abstract landscapes stands beautifully on its own, yet together they form a larger image: a grafted fruit tree. Like Flourishing Graft, Seeds of Belonging explores how connection and difference can grow side by side, and how diverse parts can come together to create new life. Each panel represents an individual contribution - a small act of tending, belonging, or hope. When joined, they form something greater: a vision of what becomes possible when we care for one another and for the world we share.

How do your small acts of care matter?

Where do you sense yourself contributing to something larger?

Flourishing Graft (2025)

Recycled painted paper on canvas I 100 × 100 cm I €1590

Flourishing Graft depicts a grafted fruit tree bearing both lemons and oranges - a vision of harmony through difference. Its overlapping circles represent fruit, family, and the relational worlds that make up our societies and sense of belonging. In an age of ecological and social fragmentation, Flourishing Graft offers a hopeful metaphor for resilience: that flourishing is possible through diversity and interdependence.

Where in your life has difference led to growth, beauty, or belonging?

Who or what has helped you “graft” new ways of belonging into your life?

Cold Air, Open Heart (2025)

Recycled painted paper on canvas I 40 × 40 cm I €450, including frame

Soft browns, blues, and creams shape this abstract winter landscape, echoing the clarity and quiet beauty of a cold-weather walk. It reflects the way crisp air can clear the mind, invigorate the body, and gently open the heart. The artwork also speaks to the gifts that wait just beyond our comfort zones - those moments when what first feels inhospitable becomes nourishing once we step into it with curiosity and courage.

When have you found reward in places you once avoided because you thought they would be inhospitable or too difficult for you?

What supports you to approach unknown or uncomfortable situations with curiosity and courage?

You Too Have Come Into the World To Do This (2025)

Recycled painted paper and acrylic on canvas I 90 × 80 cm I €1150

The title of this work comes from the closing lines of Mary Oliver’s poem, When I Am Among the Trees, which read, “…and you too have come / into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled / with light, and to shine.” As I created this piece, I practised that invitation: to go easy, loosen my grip, and trust the process. The work carries that sense of openness and light - a reminder that beauty, meaning, and belonging can unfold when we allow ourselves simply to be.

Take a moment to read When I Am Among The Trees, by Mary Oliver before reflecting on the questions.

Where in your life might loosening your grip create more space for light?

What do you feel you have come into the world to learn, offer, or become?

Carried By a Sea That Also Lives in Me (2025)

Recycled painted paper on wood panel I 30 × 30 cm I €345, including frame

This small abstract seascape evokes the constant movement and depth of the ocean - both around us and within us. Layered textures and flowing forms suggest how we are carried by forces larger than ourselves, yet intimately connected to them. The work reflects the ebb and flow of life, emotions, and experience, reminding us that the currents of the world, nature, and of our own hearts are all inseparable.

Where do you notice larger forces shaping your life?

How do your inner currents mirror the world around you? And what does belonging feel like when you sense yourself as part of these shared movements?

Now Hemmed In, Now Grasping All (2025)

Recycled painted paper and acrylic on canvas I 100 × 120 cm I €1950

This watery abstract landscape reflects the movement between the grief of loss and the grace of renewal described in Rilke’s poem, Evening. Vertical divisions evoke borders between nations and selves, while soft gradients open toward moments of connection and transcendence. Like the poem, the work expresses the delicate balance of being human: shaped by limits, yet continually reaching toward connection and new beginnings.

Take a moment to read Rilke’s poem, displayed below the artwork.

What limits or losses have shaped you?
Which experiences that once felt limiting later became openings - and what helped that shift occur?

Harbourless Blue (2025)

Recycled painted paper on wood panel I 40 × 50 cm I €500

This abstract seascape speaks to the experience of uncertainty - of moving through life without a clear harbour to rest in, and with future shores still out of sight. It invites a shift of attention: to notice the beauty of the present moment, even when it is temporary, and perhaps especially because it is temporary. Harbourless Blue is a reminder not to let fear of the unknown eclipse what is luminous and available right now, in the in-between spaces where we often grow the most.

What helps you notice beauty in the in-between and uncertain times?

How do you care for yourself when answers aren’t yet available?

Gathering up what you’ve explored

Before you leave, you might like to pause for a final moment - not to do anything, but simply to notice yourself here now.

You’ve spent time with landscapes of uncertainty and delight, boundaries and openness, loss and renewal, individuality and interdependence. Some questions may have stirred gently; others may have opened something tender or surprising. Nothing needs to be resolved.

If it feels supportive, you might reflect on one or two of these closing questions - or simply hold them quietly as companions as you return to your day.

What feels most alive in you right now - a feeling, an image, a memory, or a word?
What has this journey reminded you about who you are, or what matters to you?
Where did you notice yourself feeling connected - to yourself, to others, or to the living world around you?
What feels like it wants gentle tending as you move forward? And what support already exists around you for that?

You might also take a moment to acknowledge yourself for being here. Turning toward reflection, imagination, and feeling is an act of quiet courage. Belonging does not require certainty, performance, or arrival - it grows through attention, honesty, care, and courage.

As you leave, you are invited to carry whatever you wish with you - a colour, a question, a sense of being accompanied. And you may leave behind anything that no longer serves you.

You are already part of this wider ecology - of people, stories, landscapes, and living systems - simply by being here, breathing, noticing, and feeling.

Your way of belonging does not need to look like anyone else’s.

Thank you for visiting

I hope this exhibition leaves you with something that can take root - an image, a feeling, or a question - that supports the flourishing of creativity, connection, and belonging in your everyday life.

I’d love to hear from you

I’d love to hear your responses to Topophilia: Landscapes of Belonging. What resonates for you? Which artwork do you feel connects the most with your own experiences? What will you carry with you from this exhibition?

If you’re happy to share, I’d love it if you’d write a note in the exhibition guestbook, or drop me an email at cath@cathduncan.com.

Want to share the Reflection Tour with someone?

This tour can be experienced in the gallery or online. You’re welcome to share it with friends or loved ones who can’t visit the exhibition in person. You can do that by forwarding this page to them.

Would you like to own one of these artworks?

All of the artworks are available to buy. If you’d like to own one of these artworks, please email me at cath@cathduncan.com or whatsapp me on +31-6-27-97-73-66. I’ll be happy to schedule a phone call or meet you at Museum Hoge Woerd.

Let’s stay in touch

If you’d like to stay in touch, you’re warmly invited to follow along on Instagram or sign up for my Studio Notes newsletter below, where I share reflections on creativity and grief, behind-the-scenes peeks into my process, and news of new artwork and exhibitions.