Jan-Willem Boer, born in The Netherlands, studied art at the renowned Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam under some of the most influential artists of this era, specializing in design and painting. He worked as an illustrator and designer for 35 years for more than 100 clients in both the USA and Europe, winning several awards for his outstanding work. He began his career working for the Dutch publishing house VNU as the in-house illustrator for KIJK, a Dutch popular scientific magazine. He taught painting for 10 years and then started to concentrate on producing his own art works.
He has exhibited widely in the US and abroad including solo exhibitions in Minneapolis, MN, Lancaster, PA, Lexington, VA, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Jan-Willem lives and works in the Shenandoah Valley where the hills and roads have had a major influence on his work. He has developed a colorful and individual way of portraying the American landscape. His paintings of his environment and highways are produced by simple moody shapes and dark palette strokes.
Jan-Willem is a semi-realistic contemporary artist; working across mediums and disciplines. He produces paintings with a real feel of a time and a place. His art works display great sense of atmosphere and are often stark and haunting. He paints in oils and acrylic to create intense, luminous paintings with smooth brushstrokes and lush palettes. His paintings subvert traditional understandings of light and color through the nuanced application of reflective color and diverse shades of blue.
Jan-Willem is married to his wife, Nancy, for 40+ years, have three married sons and nine grandchildren. Jan-Willem and Nancy run the Shenandoah Art Destination together.
