Whoever is priviliged enough to possess a painting by the Frisian artist Gert-Jan Veenstra is entranced time and time again by the delightfull palette; how on the canvas, the painter brings the naturalness of his subject matter graphically back to life in such a masterfull way.
With fluent, energetic brush strokes, flowing finely even to the tiniest details Veenstra creates a moving scene in all of his paintings, a scene to arouse aesthetic passions in each and every one of us.
He was born on 11 april, 1957 in Workum, a picturesque harbour town situated on the shores of the former Zuiderzee. The family soon moved to Witmarsum, a pleasant country village. His distinctiveness manifested itself at an early age, as he made charcoal or pencil sketches of how he saw the countryside in a way that revealed his unmistakeble natural talent. As the years passed and Gert-Jan mastered the finesse of drawing, he was struck by the inevitable urge to capture all this beauty in colour. This radical change of technique, having to search for the right incidence of light and nuance of colour, demanded endless practice and study. Countless visits to musea and an abundance of advice from fellow artists enabled Veenstra to mature as an artist and develop an exuberant style reminiscent of the nostalgic works of reknowned masters of past centuries.
The autumn-clad trees silhouetted against scudding clouds, the serene light on a spring morning, the jagged white cracks in a black layer of frozen ice, brightening under the warm glow emanating from the window of a snowcovered farmhouse, are images which Veenstra 's skillful technique immortalizes on canvas in a profound, compositional fashion. When confronted by the appropiate details of colour in the shadows as they recede from the foreground, contrasting with the delicate hues in the contours of trees and farmhouses reflected and merging in the lapping water, one is struck by the painter's enormous depth and involvement, as he captures his feelings and affinity towards the countryside in such a realistic manner.
