Artist:		Janhendrik Dolsma
Technique:		oilpaint
Date of exhibition:		April 4 - May 4, 2003
Parallel:		Group Exhibition Realists

Janhendrik Dolsma, Misty clouds 2, 2003, oil on canvas, 60x60cm. | zoom |

The eminent Dutch Waddenpainter The statement, made earlier, that "there's hardly a greater ego than that of an artist" doesn't apply to Janhendrik Dolsma (1950). It's true that he admits making "small paintings", but he doesn't see them as "art". The small paintings of Dolsma ­ although sometimes man-sized ­ have but one model: the Dutch Wadden. This all sounds very simple and neat.

But he who chooses for the Wadden as a model, chooses for an angel or a harpy, for a sphinx, a whore or a princess, for there is no model more fickle than that capricious entity of wind, water and clouds. Dolsma loves it as no one else does. A love that was awakened in his early childhood, because for as long as he can remember he used to spend his holidays with his parents on the island of Vlieland. As soon as he could pick up a pencil, he tried to capture his model in broad outlines. Dolsma's adolescent love became his bride and his loyalty proved to be unconditional, for up until this day, by now half a century later, he can be found on that island with paint and canvases, wearing a bold sou'wester that can also serve as a small tent. And from there he sings the praises of her pearly glimmer, her glittering veils, her raging moods or her icy calm.

The wadden, or in a broader sense: nature, is often regarded as a someting that we, human beings, are not really part of; as something pure, bus also treacherous; as something we don't want to destroy but would love to submit. It is like the summery humming of the bee: something we can only really enjoy if we are certain that his sting has been removed. Dolsma, on the other hand, submmerges himself in nature; he is getting wet, is coloured brown, runs around with burst lips, shivers, and is blown out of his shirt. Inside equals outside, like high above equals down under on the light-reflecting Wadden. Peak-experiences on a flat plane. Work of Janhendrik Dolsma is included in the Møhlmann collection.

Janhendrik Dolsma, Rainbow, 1998, oil on canvas, 80x60cm. | zoom |

Exchange with Museum van Lien The Canto Collection of Museum Møhlmann, consisting of 124 paintings, is part of the permanent collection of the museum, but from March 4th this project is to be exhibited in Museum van Lien in the village of Fijnaart. From this museum (also privately-owned and run) Museum Møhlmann receives in exchange a fine collection of realistic and figurative works of Wout Muller, Rein Pol, Jan van der Kooi, Hester Schroor, Gerard van de Weerd en many others. This collection will be on show until June 16th.

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