Marinus Welman

Marinus Welman was a Dutch painter of the California/American scene. He began painting as a child in Holland during the occupation in WWII. If you were to call Welman anything, it would be a painter, who is also a historian. His artwork, which consists of oil paintings, drawings and sculptures, encompasses the tapestry of life—from the horrors of the Holocaust, to the fierce pride of the American Indian, to the turbulent North Sea, breathtaking California Coastline and raw strength of ironworkers.

He was born in 1934. WWII started when he was 5. After the war when Welman turned 14, he started formal art training at the Kunstnijverheids school in Amsterdam and later attended sessions at the Akademie van Beeldende kunsten Amsterdam. When he was 17 and 18, he collected impressions for his art by sailing the world’s oceans on a wild freighter left over from the war.moved to California at the age of 21.During his more than 50 years in California, Welman has captured many forms of the state’s raw beauty, including Big Sur, which he considers the most inspiring coastline of the world, and locally at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange and Laguna Beach. He has painted in all kinds of weather conditions, including the Santa Ana winds, which “make things look silvery.” It is the artist’s wartime experiences as a child, however, that in many ways permeate his work.

Welman’s most graphic and intense works are his interpretations of the Holocaust

(orangereview.com)