Haaksbergen Local Customs

Jan te Wierik (Haaksbergen) began his art career in 1971 at the age of 21. He had little to no exposure to art in his early years. He is totally self-taught, and started his career primarily as a sculptor with painting being a secondary medium. After some years sculpting in heavy stone, he developed back problems which forced him to concentrate primarily on painting.

Jan works with specially prepared paper and uses acrylics, acrylic pigments, and various types of oil paint including artists' oils and ordinary oil based house paint. Most of Jan's work is done in mixed media. The colors in his work are primary. The backgrounds are nondescript and on most paintings, two primary images are depicted. Sometimes they are obviously animal, but occasionally one can see a distinct human appearance. Whatever it may be, woman or man, bird or dog, what these creatures have in common is either an intense connection or a rather harrowing lack of contact. A self-taught artist, Jan identifies most with other expressionist painters.

While early in his career Jan worked primarily in the abstract, form has become more and more important to him. He works impulsively out of pure emotion and rarely has a preconceived plan. As he puts it, "I simply start working in the morning. I think painting is a craft; I don't wait for inspiration."

(text taken from website)