Jonathan Koetsier was born in South Africa and lived there until he was ten, when his family moved to a small and quaint countryside village called Owslebury in Hampshire in the UK. He pursued a BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Art and Design before completing a BA in Drawing and a MA in Illustration (Authorial Practice) at Falmouth University. He subsequently moved with his wife to St. Andrews to be nearer family and because of the beautiful and inspiring location.
Of his work Jonathan says, “For me, painting from life is to do with much more than simply representing what I see optically; painting is a matter of expressing how I feel about what I see.
“In paint I render momentary experiences of observing and responding, continuously amassing marks into a visual statement as a whole. I have recently been finding inspiration for my work within landscape and still life painting, I feel that both of these subject matters are usefully to me as I develop a personal approach to visual depiction and image making. The major difference between them is to do with the fact that the still life is selected, arranged, and somewhat static, while the landscape is found, framed, and continuously moving.”
Jonathan started showing with Fraser Gallery St Andrews in early 2018 and has continued to provide a strong body of work which has thus far been exhibited in our mixed shows.