Diever’s first Art Walk attracted countless art lovers to the Brinkdorp. Where even a world-famous artist – in her field – exhibited her work.
A father, mother and two children walk around the Brink in Diever. Just behind them walks a middle-aged couple. And the Minnema family from Joure has just passed by: Joop and Annelies went to the first Art Walk in the art village of Diever at the invitation of son Marcel and his wife Margreet.
They pick and choose the best they can, especially now that Marcel and Margreet have just chosen a new interior. You have to look carefully for matching art objects, for example ceramics. You don’t just come across that. And heat and mem (Frisian for mom and dad) certainly wanted to come along. Mem certainly, as a board member of the cultural circle in Joure.
The Minnema’s make it a great day out. “Just the car ride, past Steenwijk and Vledder, is already a day out,” says Marcel with satisfaction. And then the art walk, with almost twenty different exhibitors, has yet to begin. Well, they started with By Wemke, a world-famous artist in her little world of Encaustic Art. “That is highly recommended,” say the Minnemas, before they continue their art route.
Encaustic Art
In her workspace, Wemke de Jong takes plenty of time for the visitors, who already have about twenty interested people on this day. In the summer period it is much more, with all the tourists and day trippers, she says. And the Art Walk – four weekends a year – should bring even more people into contact with Encaustic Art, one of the oldest forms of painting in existence. “It was found in tombs from ancient Egypt,” she says.
She briefly shows what she does on a table: with a hot iron – half the size of the one for clothing – she melts beeswax in different colors. The melted wax acts like paint on the paper, this time the size of a postcard. In no time – about a minute – she creates a small natural landscape with the bow bolt and her brush. “Please. You can have it,” she says, handing over her Encaustic Art. “Art doesn’t have to be difficult. Anyone can do it, from 7 to 90 years old.”
Depressed
In ten years, De Jong from Diever grew from a woman who was looking for a happy life to an artist who gives workshops, runs a studio and has recently become the wholesaler for Encaustic Art in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. She sometimes has to pinch herself as to whether it is all really true.
Because ten years ago De Jong didn’t feel like doing anything. Not even working with beeswax, as her mother’s friend advised her. “But when the iron hit the paper, something happened. Magic,” she looks back. Working with beeswax turned out to be the turning point in her life. “I was able to learn well at school. As people we are kind of guided: because in that case you are not going to do anything with your hands. I eventually became quite depressed.”
Mirror
Until Encaustic Art, through which De Jong found her own happiness, and with which she also gave other people a move in the right direction. Not long ago she received a letter from someone who had attended a workshop with her. A letter full of warmth and love. And the promise that she would visit the artist again soon. “You work with your head and your heart. You will create. And if you open yourself up, such a painting becomes the mirror of your soul.”
In that mirror, De Jong now sees a happy woman who does what she wants. She expanded her work to giving workshops and making vlogs. She did this following the example of Michael Bossom, the founder of Encaustic Art, from Wales. “He then contacted me,” says De Jong in disbelief. And now, ten years after she started, she is a big name in the small, friendly world of painting with beeswax.
“But I can still walk on the street,” she says with a wink. And from that street people walk into the studio again. They are all available in Diever.