After completing a part time evening course in the beginning of the 80's at the Exeter Arts Centre led by Edith Southwell , fine arts tutor at Exeter College of Fine Art& Design over the course of 3 years Ineke Van der Wal established her studio at Spacex , Exeter where she became an active member of the studios, with her first exhibition quickly to follow at Exeter University to continue regularly across the UK in Europe and the US.
Ineke Van der Wal’s work is held in two public collections ; Women' s Art Collection , Murray Edwards, Cambridge and the Collection of Southwest State University in Minnesota .

Her arts practice explores the interactions of the inner and outer self, which has been a consistent inspiration throughout her lengthy arts practise. 
The practise with its focus on painting has a commitment to consistently explore and evolve; it engages with literature, of most recent , the poetry of TS Eliot as well found words which she imbues into the artwork with a layered painterly experience, where the perception of inner /and outer perception of self to the body, to time and memory are explored , all within a sense of place. Paintings develop in series with material and gesture diffused in a rhythmic and layered process in a complex interplay of memory, body, and place.
The beginning of Van der wal’s practise reflected on brut, forceful, and social engaged work,; primary colours painted with thick slashes of paint advanced into body landscapes. Which led to a further change in the nineties; influenced by theoretical feminist theory the painting continued to develop an interest in the art historical portrayal of the female figure. 

Over- proportioned details were sourced and painted in a deliberate fragmentation and a suggestive reference to these portrayals of the historical female narrative and its portrayal of women in a mythological and allegorical manner. In this series of paintings, the figurative elements were either hidden or suggested in a lived experience .

The portrayal of the body, from brut and forceful works in primary colours to the exploration of feminist theory in the nineties gave her a dynamic engagement with art historical and theoretical influences. The deliberate act of fragmentation and hidden elements continues to inform the work and consequent series following my illness in 2019.

The painting process makes thoughts visibly perceptive and objective. The paint forces these disparate elements of thought to exist side by side in observations in effects of light, tone and colour and shapes. The work does not represent a perceived reality; rather it constitutes a language of its own.

Obsession with painting is what it comes down 
to persevere and begin over and over again .