Willem Haenraets
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Impressionist painter, born in 9 october 1940.
Willem Haenraets is an Hollandaise painter, known for the Plein-air watercolors street scenes. With soft colors, the artist conjures up a romantic world of beautiful illusion on his canvasses in the Impressionist style.
“I was born in Heerlen, which is a town in the south of the Netherlands. When I was sixteen, I started my education at the City Acadamy at Maastricht. After I graduated, I was awarded a scolarship to study at the Belgium National Institute for Fine Arts at Antwerp and I became a student of Professor Sarina (Atelier Opsomer) and Professor Vaarten. During my life I exhibitioned succesfully in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States. Since three years I live with my wife Thea in Spain, in the vicinity of Alicante”.
http://willemhaenraets.exto.org/
Willem Haenraets was born in Heerlen, the Netherlands, on October 9th, 1940.
When he was 16 years old, he started his education at the Academy of Arts in Maastricht.
Four years later he obtained a scholarship from the Belgian Government to study at the National Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp,in the Master class of professor Sarina ( Atelier Opsomer) and professor Vaarten.In his impressionistic paintings he mostly adds abstraction and figuration.
Atmosphere comes into existence by colours , light, levels and lines.
The abstract element always continues, however the painting is figurative.
Willem Haenraets was born October, the 9th, 1940 in Heerlen, the Netherlands. When he was 16 years old, he started at the Art Academy in Maastricht.
Four years later artist managed to receive a scholarship from the Belgian Government, to study at the,Belgian National Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp, where he also opened his very first studio and got his first model.
At that time, artist also started to exhibit and sell his works. With the first money earned he bought a Vespa Scooter and drove to several picturesque places in the neighborhood. (lasvegasoms.com) The Harbor of Antwerp.was one of his favorites.
It was there, at the Harbor of Antwerp , where young Willem met a ship-owner, who tremendously helped him by putting in touch with a number of people, that resulted in many portraits orders and good commissions at the end. Unfortunately, the ship-owner passed away and the artist left Antwerp and went to Paris, where he stayed a couple of months.
On Place de Tetre he painted portraits from the early morning till midnight, so he could afford to buy a house in Bergen, Holland. This dream became true, the house was bought and the artist lived there with his first wife, Hannah.At that time he created lot of paintings, that were sold In galleries and artmarkets.
Then a horrible drama happened, Hannah died in a car-accident, leaving Willem behind with their 6 weeks old daughter, Hester.
After a while artist decided to return to Heerlen, where he moved into a residence within a little castle, Kasteel Terworm and submerged into work. He was selling sold his paintings in Holland and Germany. At the end of the 70th, he met his second wife, Thea and her little daughter Susan.. Together they got a son, named Bram.
Halfway through 80th Willem decided to start making prints of his paintings. This changed a lot of things in his life, including financial situation. He started receiving a lot of invites from publishers and organizers of Art-fairs in the United States , England and Germany. He signed the limited editions on the art-stands in the Convention Center of New York and LA. While his lithographs were exhibited at the Expo, his original paintings were shown in a gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. His works became known all over the world and resulted in more exhibitions in Nagoya, Japan and many more. It was a great success. The Japanese especially like his soft colors and romantic subject.
In the 90s artist was approached by an owner of the gallery in the Stokstraat of Maastricht.
Together they went through a lucrative time, holding a beautiful exhibition in Gallery Renoir every two years. Unfortunately due to the gallery’s owner disease this promising partnership came to an end.
In 2003 artist and his family bought a house in Spain, Hondon de las Nieves, where the municipality asked Willem to exhibit his paintings in the Casa de Cultura of the village.
Currently artist works with publishers, who distribute his work all over the world, in the form of litho and gyclee-prints. His original paintings are being sold by himself and gallery-owners.