Jan Smets

“I produced my first drawings sitting in a highchair, my little fingers tracing patterns on a fogged up window pane; this was followed by the walls of the house and anything that could be drawn on or in, such as magazines and school exercise books. I illustrated fantastical stories peopled with, at times, some rather caricatured subjects.

As a child I spent a great deal of time outdoors in the garden and in the neighbouring parks, fields and woods. I was fascinated by everything living, growing and flowering there, and avidly observant of all of it. It energised me, fuelling my imagination to draw with a passion.

In the hippie years of the 1970s, following my art training in Ghent, I embarked on several long and adventurous journeys to North Africa, Afghanistan, India and Bali. They were a crucial source of inspiration for my work.

Jan in Goa, India, 1974

Bali, 1974/75

In my work, a role is played by nature and contact with other civilisations that accord an importance to nature, but a further role is played by the big questions posed by the ever-hesitant seeker concerning the mystery of our existence, what it is to be human and creation, the universe. This impels me towards mysticism.

Mystère, 1988

Pan, 2008

Still Life, 1994

Jan Smets najaar 1974 Duinbergen na terugkeer uit India

Jan on the beach in Duinbergen after his return from India, autumn 1974

The majority of my works begin life in spontaneous drawings which, from some inner impulse, I scribble and sketch on anything lying within my immediate reach. In those preliminary phases, botanical and organic forms appear side-by-side curious beings and figures. Initially, such drawings originate purely from my subconscious. I then start to refine them, allowing them to expand into entire tableaux fortified with flushes of inspiration that come into being as I work.”

Jan P. Smets was born on 28 July 1947 in Scherpenheuvel (Brabant, Belgium) and now lives in Korbeek-Lo near Leuven.

His artistic training began at the Sint-Thomasinstituut in Brussels. After graduating as a secondary school teacher of the visual arts, he complemented his studies with two years of painting at the Hoger Instituut Sint-Lucas in Ghent, where he graduated 1971.

In 1991, he resumed his practical fine arts studies with a view to fine-tuning his skills. He embarked on life drawing classes at the Stedelijke Academie De Lei (SLAC) in Leuven and, once these ended, he embarked on the life model painting course.

In conclusion, his final specialisation year in graphics brought his studies to an end in 2007. Afterwards, driven by his interest in graphic techniques, he acquired further skills over the course of several years in the technique of screen printing.