Jo Debije
I make paint things
because it's a beautiful thing to do.
I make paint things
because there is an insurmountable inner compulsion to paint.
I make paint things
because it's the hardest thing to do.
I make paint things
because it's the easiest thing to do.
The born painter.
The raw primal force.
The creative prodigy. He has got to paint, he can't do without it. Always looking for new and pure, for 'wow'. A lot of research, always trying something new. Doing, doing and more doing.
Inspiration sprouts from his ears, like an inexhaustible source. He therefore wanted to go to art school, but his parents urged him to study 'a real profession'. So occupational therapy it was.
The inner compulsion to paint quickly wins and outflanked everything else. And so it came about that there's nothing else to be done than painting. In the last 10 years this has resulted in about 175 large and dozens of smaller paintings, over 50 exhibitions and many happy people who bought a work.
Thank you.
Josie Arnoys
Jo and I complement each other perfectly. He works with a lot of power, I am more subdued. He can lay out lines at lightning speed, create a base. I focus on the details and work more from an art perspective.
A perfectionist.
As I kid I was always drawing, so after pre-university education I got to go to the academy of the arts, that was just a matter of course. Took admission at three academies and was accepted at all three. In the Netherlands around that time there was a slogan to promote independence: 'a smart girl is prepared for her future' and so, very consciously, I opted for graphic and typographic design 'because I want to earn my own living'. After the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (graduated in 1992) and the Utrecht School of the Arts (graduated in 1995), I worked as a designer for TV for over 12 years (at RTL, HollandMediaGroep, Valkieser Solutions and UBF) and for 8 years as a teacher at the Utrecht School of the Arts. Now to prove that you cán live from and for the arts.
Our own way, our own style
Stir our qualities together and a 'paint thing' is created. Connection between the great and the small,
the forces between heaven and earth and
the magic of ebb and flow
provide us a lot of inspiration.