Jan-Willem Boer, born in Koog aan de Zaan, 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. Moving to the United States he resided for many years in Minneapolis, MN and is now a resident of Lexington, Virginia.
He has worked as an illustrator and designer for the past 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 and was the in-house illustrator for KIJK, a Dutch popular scientific magazine. In Europe he also created illustrations for Muy Interresante (Spain), P.M. (Germany), Elixer, Doe Het Zelf, Nuon (Netherlands) and more. In the USA some of his prominent clients are Royal Caribbean, Toro, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Caterpillar, Graco, Polaris, Arctic Cat, John Deere, Pfizer, 3M, Ecolab, Tennant, Amercian Woodworker, Advance, McKinsey Quarterly, Honda, Starkey Laboratories and i-team Global.
Ten years ago he realized that it was time to go back to his roots and pick up the brushes. What strikes the person who views a work by JW Boer is the singularity and peacefulness that emanates; and the longer the viewer looks, the more deeply and impressively that soulful peacefulness seems to flow. “For me, the artist’s task is to create some kind of order out of the chaos that surrounds us,” he says. While the artist enjoys working in a variety of styles and mediums, he is best known for his bright semi-realistic paintings of American and Dutch landscapes and street scenes.
A renegade in respect to the belief that an artist should stick to one medium only, Boer’s artistic explorations have involved oil and acrylics, pastels, gouache of every conceivable description, watercolor and printing. He has also mastered the programs of Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. For several years he taught Graphic Design at Eastern Mennonite University and Southern Virginia University.
Jan-Willem is married to his wife, Nancy, for 40 years, have three married sons and eight grandchildren. Together they run the Shenandoah Art Destination in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley in Lexington, VA, which is a facility for an all-inclusive art vacation (meals, lodging & art tutoring/instruction),
To view Jan’s artwork see website www.jwboer.com and commercial illustration work at www.BoerandBoer.com.