1947 Rotterdam the Netherlands
1966-1969 kindergarten teacher Zwijndrecht
1969-2003 artist working in Zwijndrecht
1969-1972 art teacher teacher training college Rotterdam
1970-2003 AllaprimA Art school for children and adults Zwijndrecht
1972-1975 study academy of art Tilburg
1975-1997 art teacher teacher training college Rotterdam
2003 founding art centre Saksala ArtRadius Haukivuori Finland
2003- artist working in Haukivuori Finland
2004- starting art education program Saksala ArtRadius Haukivuori Finland
2005- starting artist-in-residence program Saksala ArtRadius Haukivuori Finland

work

The artist Marja de Jong is working in her atelier first in Holland and now a days in the rural area of Eastern Finland.
The work she creates consists of monumental levels build up in many colorful layers. The starting point is the space of the under-layer.

The visual reality is giving the motives for the subject, but recognizing at the end is not a goal. It is the light that visualizes the world on the canvas or the paper.
Finnish light is remarkable and is inspiring to paint in a different  way than in the past, even the link with the past is still there.

She has educating art more than 35 years to students of a teacher training college and worked with children and adults in the private AllaprimA art-school in Holland, now she is working in the art centre Saksala ArtRadius Finland.

Marja de Jong is an authority in the field of children’s drawing and painting with a lot of experiences in education.

During the years a huge collection of children’s drawings, made by children of the AllaprimA Art-school, existed. This collection is used by training teachers, giving workshops, making exhibitions and researching the way children see their world.

As long as she remembers drawing is a part of her live.
As a child you never have the idea the way you exist is different and not like everybody’s live. It is like it is.

In drawings and paintings she could be the one she is. It was always an exciting moment to see the material transform into something you want. Finger painting was not her way of thinking. Already in the age of five she feels it was like an illusion. You have to do it because it should make you free. From what? It has nothing to do with visualizing.

Except finger painting she liked all kinds of art work and she was and is always curious to see what happens when you do something unexpected. How is the material reacting? In what way you get new ideas through it? Her art teacher Geert Spuybroek during her study in the teacher’s training college was very important for her. His enthusiasm and knowledge about art and art education inspire her until this day. Of course she goes her own independent way in her artistic work, but the fundament was build up during these years.

From the moment she starts as a teacher art was an important issue of it. Working with children and see how it is possible to develop their talents gives her all the time a positive impulse. Her artistic work is intensively related to the artistic work of children. Both are part of her way of existing.

Creating art by her self is the base of her live, it is what she is.

Working with children, but also with adults, belongs to it. Her artistic way of working is to see what is already there and what she can do with it. The ideas are in the subject and she is able to see and to visualize them. The material she works with has its own quality and possibilities and together with her technique, her handwriting the paintings are created. During the work it feels to be  on a journey without exactly knowing where to arrive, the most exiting feeling.

Mono print is one of her favorite techniques. She likes the process and working in layers and mixing materials and see how the skin of the work get its special structure. Every time it gives new perspectives and ways. She uses many ways to work in it and still the possibilities did not end.

Oil paint she likes because of its soft skin and the way you can work in transparent layers, but also with relief by thick paint. The colors of oil paint are warmer than the acryl colors. It makes you have to work different with both materials.

After living her whole live in the same place in the Netherlands, where she had her own art school, She decided in 2002 to move to Finland and in 2003 she started an art centre in Haukivuori.
It gives the same feelings as painting, starting on a blanco spot without knowing anything and try to arrange your live in the same and new way.

Creating a place where she can exist and where other artists and interested people can come together and contact to share and have new experiences is just like a big art work, once you start you don’t where it ends. It gives new possibilities with every step you do. Her art work will change, because of the situation, the way it will change is not clear, therefore it is too soon. In the way she grows in the art centre is a promise for the time coming and the future will show it. In the mean time she continues with everything.

used materials and techniques

oil- and acryl-paint, gouache, Indian ink, mono-print, crayon, pencil and mixed media

member artist's societies

*BBK Amsterdam
Dutch Visual Artists Union Amsterdam

*Teekengenootschap Pictura  Dordrecht
Visual Artists Society Pictura  Dordrecht

publications

*clazien immink, schilder -immink, Geldrop
 (clazien immink, a painter -immink Geldrop)

*in beeld brengen - Dijkstra Zeist
 (making art          - Dijkstra Zeist)

*kijk, als je tekent zie je meer      - NOT Hilversum
 (look, if you draw you see more  - Dutch education broadcasting)

*misschien ben jij het wel - gedichten Jan ‘t Lam
                                             illustraties Marja de Jong - Leopold
 (maybe it is you                - poems Jan ‘t Lam
                                             illustrations Marja de Jong Leopold)

*informatie beelden zwijndrecht - stichting vriendenkring beeldenpark drechtoevers
 (information sculptures zwijndrecht  - foundation circle of friends sculpture park zwijndrecht)

*zwijndrecht een beeld van een stad  - gemeente zwijndrecht
 (zwijndrecht a city with sculptures       - municipal of zwijndrecht)

*kindertekeningen, een beeldverhaal   - stichting AllaprimA Zwijndrecht
(children’s drawings, a story in images  -AllaprimA Foundation Zwijndrecht)

*uit de kunst     - Delubas Drunen
 (a way of art    - Delubas Drunen)

member of the board

1990 -   AllaprimA Foundation Ridderkerk NL

1996-2003 Foundation Vriendenkring Beeldenpark  Drechtoevers Zwijndrecht NL

2006 -   Ryhmä Taidekirppujen Yö Haukivuori

2008 -   AREFS taide ja kulttuuri ry Haukivuori

stipendiums

2005 Etelä Savon Kulttuurirahasto
2005 Suomen Kulttuurirahasto
2007 Suomen Kulttuurirahasto

websites

www.allaprima.org
www.selected-art.com
www.saksala.org
www.14square.com
www.marjadejong.com

commissions

Boszicht - Didam
Muller - Zwijndrecht
Vrolijk - Zwijndrecht
Verheij - Leiden
Keukenline - Zwijndrecht
Mertens - Oosterhout
de Jong - Teteringen
de Jong Tours - Rijsoord/Ridderkerk
Lavooij - Rotterdam
Straks - Zwijndrecht
stichting gecombineerd woningbeheer - Zwijndrecht
Nissan-dealer de Waal - Rijsoord/Ridderkerk

work in collections

Aardse Nieuwerkerk a/d IJssel
Anttola Hovi Anttola FI
Baan Capelle a/d IJssel
de Back Capelle a/d IJssel
Bazen Nieuwerkerk a/d IJssel
Benner Barendrecht
Berndt Haukivuori FI
Bomar Dordrecht
Booij Tilburg
Bosch Zwijndrecht
Brouwers Amsterdam
de Bruin Ridderkerk
de Bruin Rotterdam
Burggraaf Rotterdam
Delubas Drunen
Dijkstra Zeist
van Dongen Zwijndrecht
van Dongen H.I. Ambacht
Cordes Amsterdam
Elema Maren (Gr)
ESA KY Mikkeli FI
Glaubitz Rotterdam
Ikävalko Nykälä FI
Immink Rotterdam
Iso-Mustajärvi Savitaipale FI
Iso-Mustajärvi Helsinki FI
Jiskoot Zwijndrecht
de Jong Rijsoord/Ridderkerk
de Jong Intra Vakanties Ridderkerk
de Jong Teteringen
de Jong Zwijndrecht
Karki Mikkeli FI
Katajarinna Helsinki FI
Keukenline Zwijndrecht
Krommenhoek Rotterdam
Kuijper Zwijndrecht
Kuronen Mikkeli FI
Lampe Amsterdam
Lampinen Haukivuori FI
de Lange Dordrecht
v.d. Meiden Molenaarsgraaf
Mertens Venlo-Blerick
Moilanen Haukivuori FI
Moisander Savonlinna FI
de Mulder Nijmegen
Myllyvirta Lahti FI
Nettel Dordrecht
Niemeijer Zwijndrecht
van Olphen Lelystad
Osuuspankki Haukivuori FI
van Pelt Houten
Plomp Rijsoord
Pluimert Zwijndrecht
Quaker Oats Zwijndrecht
van Rotterdam Ridderkerk
Victoria Dordrecht
van Setten den Haag
van Seventer Zwijndrecht
Stolk Vlaardingen
Tims Barendrecht
Ylä-aste Haukivuori FI
Verheij Leiden
Vermeulen Dordrecht
Verweij Zwijndrecht
Villerius Rotterdam
Villerius Gouda
Vuorenmaa Pälkäne FI
v.d. Zouwen Zwolle

Marja de Jong has also worked as an art teacher for many years. She had her own art school -AllaprimA Art Atelier' in Zwijndrecht (NL) and has taught over 400 children during more than 30 years. Many of those children have attended the courses for over 10 years.
The outcome of these lessons has resulted in different publications exhibitions and also in a huge collection child art. This collection is world wide unique because of the large number of children which are followed during a long period.

Recommendation by Willem Beerman (NL)
Art Teacher's Department, Hogeschool Rotterdam
“Marja was a fantastic good art teacher in the Rotterdam area. Especially with a large group of children which she coached during almost 20 years. She made a great impression with exhibitions and lectures during the Rotterdam Insea congress in 1981, de Zonnehof in Amersfoort, the Art Teachers Annual in Gent (B) and de Kunsthal in Rotterdam in 2001. Gradually she became the most important art teacher for the youngest (3- 6 years) in the Netherlands and her influence in the circle of "Kindergarten- educators was important. When she left our country it was a great loss for art education. Willem Beerman”
January 23, 2010