Description
Reading with Cat
Hand painted stained glass panel.
23.8 x 18.5 cm
Collect from gallery £250
Including UK delivery £270
Frans Wesselman was born in Holland where he trained to be an art teacher before his conscription into the Dutch army. After two years in the army he gained a diploma in printmaking and photography at Groningen College of Art.
He moved to England in 1979 where he has worked and exhibited widely in both one-man shows and group exhibitions. His paintings and etchings are in private collections as well as in the Ashmolean and Fitzwilliam museums. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Printmakers. Often his paintings, etchings and stained glass tell a story.
His work has been shown at the Royal Society of Printmakers, London; National Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London; Galerie Inkt, The Hague, Holland; and the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, to name but a few. In 2006 he was selected for the International Festival of Glass.
Frans has designed and made a set of eight windows in conjunction with the “Godiva Awakes” project. Together they tell the story of Godiva, of a thousand years of Coventry history, and of women who, like Godiva, made sacrifices for the common good.
“When we were children, my mother pinned pictures she cut out from magazines on the wall. They were drawings, illustrations to stories that I have long forgotten, but the pictures fascinated me. It was the idea one could tell stories, convey meaning, without using words. Although I work across different disciplines, drawing is at the root of them all. My main interest in my work is to tell stories about people, about their emotions and interactions with one another or with animals, nature, the super-natural”
Once Frans has an idea he will use studies from life drawing, sketches from the zoo or from his travels to work out the details. Or sit on a windy, rainy beach in January to draw the missing bits. Whenever he goes away anywhere, he always has a sketch book with him. He now has shelves of sketch books which are there as a resource, some may never be used, but drawing in them is a pleasure in itself.
