Wouter Janssen
Born 1946, in Arnhem The Netherlands

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From early childhood, Wouter Janssen was passionate about painting and drawing. On his High School examination he scored 10 out of 10 points for drawing class. He also drew the examiner’s portrait and received the highest grade. His love for the arts kept on growing over the years. At the age of eighteen he decided to dedicate his life to fine art.
He combined his study at the Academy of Arts with working in a restoration workshop; this made him discover the secrets and painting techniques of the Old Masters.
And was taught at the academy by the well-known zero artist Henk Peters (1925-2013).
Later on he managed his own restoration studio for more than thirty years.
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He also nourished his interest in art history and art movements. Later on in his career as an art-dealer, this intimate knowledge proved to be invaluable.
By coincidence, his life as a fine art painter synchronized with the history of painting. At the age of 16, he was fascinated by painting of the 15th and 16th centuries and his first painting was a copy of El Greco’s Madonna.

After that he studied the painting technique of his favorite painter Rembrandt for about 10 years. He wanted to unravel the mystery of the master. All paints were rubbed on natural grinding stone by himself in order to approach a historic effect.
During his next period he immersed himself in the technique of Romantic.
After seeing a documentary about Vincent Van Gogh’s life, he wondered how it would be to paint a canvas in free style. Initially it hardly worked, but after drinking half a litre of gin it went like plain sailing.
His eyesight eyes and patience gradually diminished and therefore he decided to switch to modern work. Brighter, lighter and more colourful than he ever painted before.

The circle almost seems to be closed: I expressed myself in every possible stylistic branch of fine art and I enjoyed every period a lot. It is remarkable however that my brush nowadays leads me back to the sensation of painting the way I experienced it as a young man. It has been a wonderful journey.

Besides his success as a painter (his first one-man exhibition was on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills) Janssen also maintained for over fifty years his own gallery called ‘De Schildercamer’, the painting room. In the 17th century, this was the room with light coming in from the north where the painter had his studio and from which he sold works, also those of other painters.
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Janssart (pseudonym Wouter Janssen)
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