Contemporary Artists | Period Artists (A-H) | Period Artists (H-Z)

Jan de Quelery

Jan de Quelery was born in 1957 near the Dutch seaport of Vlissingen, an old town with a wealth of nautical history dating back to the year 620.  The young Jan had every opportunity to indulge his passion for ships and the sea.  He expressed his fascination by drawing numerous sketches of the ships in and around the seaport.

Jan proved to be highly gifted as an artist.  So along with his job at the local shipyard, he spent his apprenticeship in commercial art studios in Holland.

In the late 1980s, Jan moved to New Zeeland where he first began to paint in watercolors.  In 1989 he returned to his hometown of Vlissingen and made a commitment to painting full time.  He also concentrated on researching historical maritime material and ships.  His work shows a contrast between the tight detailed painting of the vessel, and the need for free impressionist techniques to convey the mass, movement and translucence of the sea.

Jan de Quelery paints classical, dramatic scenes of ships at sea.  A number of his scenes have been executed in watercolors, a medium particularly well suited to capturing the diaphanous qualities of clouds and the sea.  What quickly becomes clear is that de Quelery lays down robust colors that remind us of the beauty of reflected and refracted light both on the water and in the air.

Among this natural spectacle he places portraits of individual ships, majestic crafts whose bows crash through churning waves.  Carefully detailed, no rope or sail appears to be misplaced.  In views of steamers or battleships, angled perspectives of smokestacks, guns and masts create a sense of drama and foreboding.