Jan was born in Holland, in grade 6, he won a provincial first prize for a watercolour showing kids in a backyard building a soap box. For a 12 year old it was a very big prize of 100 guilders ($50 now).

After high school: 2 years at Zwolle School of Art for a diploma,18 months draft in the armed services in Holland, then a certificate from the Artist School of Westport, Connecticut and finally life-drawing classes at the U of A in Edmonton.

After immigrating to Canada in 1960, Jan worked for:

• Hamly Press as an apprentice commercial artist.
• Sears Canada in display in Vancouver.
• Douglas Printing where he was their graphic artist, doing illustration, poster design, layouts, brochures and architectural renderings.
• Huff Studios in advertising, newspaper layout and illustration
• Edmonton Public Schools as their graphic artist looking after the Graphic Art department.

During this time, Jan was doing a variety of freelance work, such as illustrations for Johnstone Walker (they preferred drawings over photography).
After 17 years at the School Board and 25 years of teaching 2 nights a week in continuing Education, he retired.

Today, Jan does portrait commissions, landscapes, abstracts, books covers and illustrations for Edmonton area writers.

Jan has always been interested in a variety of human expression - art, music, crafts, film photography, and sculpture. His philosophy is that as long as it touches your heart, it evokes a response or starts a debate or simply recognizes the beauty or ugliness of life and gets us to react to the creator of that piece and recognizes that truth.

CONTACT ARTIST

Ukranian Orthodox
oil on canvas
40 x 30