Jan Olthof

I was born in 1946 in Bandoeng, Indonesia. The change from a colony to an independent state made life for our family difficult at the time. This country was also the birthplace of my parents where they spent most of their lives. In 1951 they made the difficult choice to leave their country of birth and to move to Holland.

In Holland I grew up in Baarn/Soest and had the most wonderful youth a boy could wish for.  Around my 12^th birthday I was motivated by my artistic aunt into making paintings. At that time in my life I had three ambitions - arts, travelling and sports of which the game of tennis won. However, it influenced my performance at school in the wrong way until I was asked to leave the school by the principal – to this day I am still grateful!  This was because it forced me to study further and get a diploma. I put my ambitions aside and had the luck to start on probation at the technical college of Mechanical Engineering. This education I finished in the shortest possible time.

I found the woman of my life and got married in 1968. Together we shared one of my ambitions of travelling. After finishing my military duty and gaining some technical experience, we left for Ethiopia where we lived for 5 years, where my two sons grew up.  We later moved to the Yemen Arab Republic for 3 years. When we returned to Holland I worked hard in a job that I enjoyed, but an unexpected heart attack slowed things down and brought back my interest for art. Returning to my first ambition of art I realized that without having any formal training in painting that I could also sculpt.

After my first wife died of cancer, God brought my second wife and motivator into my life. She was my second love at first sight and we got married very soon after we met.  Thanks to her encouragement, I developed my own style of painting with the pallette knife technique. My passion is light and shade, which I share with Sander and Hans Stout. At their exhibition place my work can also be seen. My favorite subject in both my sculptures and paintings is the artistic nude. I thank God for giving me the talent to express his most precious creation in my art – woman !