jellie van kranen
Born (1960) in Krimpen a/d IJssel, Jellie explored and studied a range of artistic styles, resulting in her becoming a truly versatile artist. From 1986 to 2000, she provided creative education to prisoners, during which time she developed a preference for painting with acrylics, aquarelle and pastels.
In 2000, during a journey around the world, she met with some artists in Australia, who had turned their hobby into their profession. The trip proved a turning point in Jellie's life. She drew inspiration and learnt from those artists, and upon her return to the Netherlands (in 2002), she decided to follow her calling, and devoted herself full-time to working with clay, and baking her creations in a Japanese raku oven. The variety of birds she discovered during her travels around the world, influenced her thinking and led to a long term specialisation in the creation of ceramic birds with long legs and brutal, shy or comical expressions.