Although, as a child, I could draw reasonably well, this was never developed further because I had yet another passion: horses. When my love of horses outgrew that of pencils and chalk, the pencils were left untouched.
In 2009, I regained the tranquillity to return to the pencils and the time to develop my skills with professional support.
In the Rijswijk atelier of artist Ben Stolk, I put my first brush on canvas.
The Iranian artist Reza Shalileh, who taught me to look and helped me develop my drawing skills.
The portrait and ultra realistic painter Arjan van Gent, who taught me the craft of oil paints and the techniques of the Old Masters.
All of this knowledge combined also provided the impetus to take up sculpture at Atelier 2, with the Voorburg-based sculptor Frans Kokshoorn as my mentor.
I paint both the visible and invisible world. Nature, as it was born out of energy and took shape. This is what I attempt to visualize through my interpretation. With pencil, oil paint, acrylic paint, but also with sand, gypsum and colour on paper or canvas. Or with the chisel and mallet in stone, but always with feeling and personal choices as a starting point. I will also paint commission portraits of people and animals, using oil paints, and I will sculpt portraits in clay, stone or bronze.
I find inspiration in everything around me, wherever I am. And my greatest examples are the French impressionists and the painters of the The Hague School.
My work is created both in my atelier and in nature, or as they say, en plein air.
It was Rodin who said, “Pour l’artiste, tout est beau dans la nature”.
That is also my perception.
Jeanette Olyhoek