Johan Claasen † & Dorien Melis †

Wind words & rustling reeds

Actually it's about everything.

Johan Claasen and Dorien Melis live in Bakel, Brabant. And the land is always present in their work, nature always palpable.

Melis's work looks abstract. But perhaps you notice the fields, agricultural and horticultural posts, corn fields or the starry sky, the first snowfall, birdsong, the rustling of the wind in the forest. While drawing, a kind of score is created, rhythmic and repetitive. Recently she also composes based on shape and color; loose geometric compositions of painted cardboard, memories of a stay in the south, of being away from home.

For Claassen, creating a work is a wandering. His objects, drawings and texts are created associatively. In a mixture of melancholy and humor, he documents what he finds. Often traces of human work in nature. Remnants of a metal factory between closure and demolition, for example, or the scarecrow stock in the wider area. He also had drawings made of the wind and built a cloud observatory on the IJsselmeer. It is also about love, about everyday happiness.

Ans Verdijk met Johan Claassen at the academy in Den Bosch. He taught there. She intuitively recognized her ideas. Johan spent a lot of time working in the fields. As a country girl drawn from the clay, she felt the heaviness in his images.

Now they both work much lighter; Claassen in grays and whites, Verdijk in softer colors. The band has remained. Sometimes she can almost hear him whispering in her ears, says Ans. She finds it very special that his work can now be seen in Beugen.

She invites everyone to rejoice with her, to go on a wandering, over land, in spirit, and to explore the world of Claassen and Melis.