Smile to me, 2014

Nico Vrielink  

Nico Vrielink was born in Reusel in the south part of the Netherlands. He was educated at an Academie of Art in Belgium to become a teacher. But teaching wasn't his cup of tea and since 1984 he working as an artist.

A year later, in 1985 Nico met his wife Jeane in Singapore. It was love at first sight and since the day he started painting her he never stopped doing so. By this time Nico has made more than 4000 paintings of Jeane.

If there is just one artist whose work can be linked to a muse, Nico Vrielink is far the most outstanding candidate. All over the world, the thousands of portraits he has painted of his muse illuminate many hundreds of private homes, institutions, galleries and museums.

er name is Jeane Seah and for decades she has been the love of his life, his source of inspiration, his companion, shining light, lover, wife and guide. Throughout the years Vrielink, a great natural talent, has proved his ability in one-subject paintings, with and through Jeane.

He would not have wanted it any other way. His themes are inspired by the rock-solid impact of her immense spiritual strength.

Over the past decades Vrielink and his Jeane have explored the world thoroughly and lived in many different places, from appartments, farms, villa's till casttles. From The Netherlands, Belgium, France till Indonesia.

His restless nature easily becomes enthusiastic, and his enthusiasm has to be indulged, preferably immediatly. So there is frequent packing to be done. At present the couple and their two sons, Léon and Jérôme, are living in Bali. And all these places had their influences on his work.

Far from limiting himself to The Netherlands, where he was born in 1958, Vrielink regards the world as his working territory. Art travels easy.

He exhibits his work with the same enthusiasm spontaneity whether it is in a Dutch country village, New York or Jakarta. His paintings touch some universal heartstring, and over the years this has given great international recognition and world fame.

Over the past years there has been a great deal of media attention for the artist Vrielink. Countless newspapers, magazines, books and tv documentaries have given him and his work extensive coverage worldwide.

He had with his paintings over 500 exhibitions and made over 5000 paintings of his wife.

In recent years the work is not only consisting of portraits of his wife, but also of their sons, animals, and handling theme's about good and evil, the balance within us.

With titles as "Rediscoverey of virtue", "Two wise men, the fool, the lady in distress", "Controversial issue", "Breakfast as usual", "Midlife crisis", we see a different Nico Vrielink. Deeper and intenser. And he even goes into politics withe the serie "If you look well, you even can see the Mont Blanc".

With a portrait like "Jeane,as she develloped" we see an endless dreamer. Everything is loose from reality and leeds it's own life, only to form itself into a new dimension