ESTIRPE Y LINAJE | Poen de Wijs - Publicaciones

Poen de Wijs - Publicaciones





Poen de Wijs (Dutch artist) 1948 - 2014
Portraits out of Africa 5, 2007
40. Neushoornvogel en Usumu (Hornbill and Usumu)
acrylics on 9 panels
80 x 100 cm. (each little panel is 20 x 25 cm.)
signed Poen de WIjs
private collection
© copyrighted work, shared with courtesy of Poen de Wijs

Three times I was married.
My first wife was the love of my youth. MARGRIET taught me to how to make choices and to take onboard the consequences of my love for animals. Through her, I became a vegetarian at the age of 17. Since then, I haven’t eaten either meat or fish. It was through her that I also decided to start painting. With my second wife MARION we both built up a careers as artists. We travelled through East Africa, painting the people and the animals living on the savannah. This book is a report of the journey we made. Marion died in 2008. My third wife, MARLEEN, showed me the Inner World, and helped me obtain deeper insights psychologically, which in itself expanded my connection with the other creatures of this world.

Thanks to these three women I was able to walk my path, the SAFARI through my life. Walking together with them helped me discover, experience and develop. A rich life with many different adventures, in which I went through all the aspects of life and love, expressed in many of my paintings.

The African series of paintings is just a part of what I found in this world. That part I experienced together with MARION VAN NIEUWPOORT, my partner for 35 years. It was in the early nineties that we went to Kenya for the first time. We were 'hooked' immediately and visited Kenya thirteen times. Thanks to EVELINE HASSELMAN and CHRIS MODIGELL we had a studio made available where we could paint, see our models and teach art to others. But above all: they organized our SAFARIS. Nothing moved me more than a journey in a four-wheel drive through the Savannahs, spotting the variety of animals in their natural environment. Europe shows culture, Africa IS nature.

text: iBook Poen de Wijs - A Safari in Paintings, 2013