Jan started painting at the age of 70 as a distraction from his wife’s illness: “What do you do with 1,000 works? It was his last wish to sell them”

When he saw his wife Lisette slowly disappear due to Alzheimer’s, Jan Vriens (84) from Lommel, Limburg, found a way to make his years at her side bearable: he started painting. He was 70 when he bought his first brush. 15 years later, after his death in December, he left behind more than 1,000 paintings. His five children will now sell them for charity: “Whenever he started something, he immediately made it tenfold.”

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