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Welcome to the gallery. Our format has been revamped for 2005 to include new
works by our artists and although it doesn't seem right, we are adding
another artist to our roster. The fact is that our artists live and breath
art. The artist we are adding died in 2003. We are all men, we live and work
in or around Amsterdam. The artist we are adding is a woman, Gretchen
Hersman, and prior to her death from breast cancer, she lived in West
Branch, Iowa. Her biography is in the index and clicking on her site will
convince anyone that she had a gift for painting animals.
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| Artist's index: JEFFRIES - WIERSUM - HERSMAN | ||
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| JOHN MILES JEFFRIES |
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John Miles Jeffries was born in Iowa in 1944. He started to paint
early, model ships, planes, and toy soldiers. 'The paint was called Dope. It made
me high, very enjoyable work. The only kid in grade school who could draw
better airplanes than me wound up illustrating duck stamps for the state of
Iowa and creating bronze sculptures of exceptional quality.'
Jeffries' first exhibition was in 1962 and he was graduated from the
University of Iowa in 1968. Since moving to Holland in 1971 he has exhibited
in numerous Dutch cities and in Spain. Most of his paintings are acrylic and
ink on paper. Besides a preference for Chinese brushes, he has developed an
acrylic medium for mixing his paints and makes sculptures from guitar
strings and glass.'My ideas for paintings,' says the artist, 'just pop out
of the ether. I paint without commercial consideration. The challenge for
me, drawing with a brush and ink on rice paper, is that I can't erase.'
Enter John Miles Jeffries' gallery |
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| GERARD WIERSUM |
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Gerard Wiersum was born in Zwanenburg, Holland, in 1958. A self-taught
artist, he describes his paintings as realistic, influenced by his
surroundings in Amsterdam. Having a partner and two children, he works as a
theater technician and is an active promoter of his paintings. His
exhibitions are numerous and his favored medium is acrylic on canvas. 'In my
work,' he says, 'the realistic reproduction of the things I see play a great
part with the manipulation of the reality. I look at the world around me and
the way I reflect on it. Any subject can stimulate my inspiration as long as
it catches me and makes a lasting impression. That thing might be a dream, a
picture in the papers, a street scene.' See for yourself.
Enter Gerard Wiersum's gallery |
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| GRETCHEN HERSMAN |
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Gretchen Hersman was born in Albia, Iowa, in 1950. Moving with her parents
to Iowa City, her passion for the rights of animals and art was formed
before she entered high school. While attending the University of Iowa she
developed an interest in glass etching and stained glass. Her work in that
medium adorns numerous store fronts in Iowa City. As an art student in the
1970s she started to experiment with pastels and water based paints on
sandpaper. In 1980 she became a co-founder of the Johnson County Humane Society and a life long interest in the protection of animals resulted. In 1996 she became the director of the Midwest Regional Office for the national group, In Defense of Animals. In this capacity she was instrumental in publicising the theft of domestic animals for sale to research laboratories and bringing public attention to the existence of breeding facilities called Puppy Mills. For this line of investigation she became persona non grata at the University of Iowa Medical Research Library. With a knack for public relations and an amazing knowledge of animal shelters and zoos across the Middle West she was able to place abused animals from cats and dogs to lions, bears, donkeys, horses, and buffalo into environmental safe havens. She also had the touch, abused animals that you couldn't approach trusted her. Gretchen Hersman's paintings illustrate how much she cared. Her death in 2003 was our loss. Some of her paintings are not dated, some are not signed, but her output of approximately 200 paintings are unmistakably by her hand and documented. Enter Gretchen Hersman's gallery |
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