Poetry and paintings in Raerd

Wytske grew up in Burgum and attended high school in Drachten. After that, she attended teacher training in biology and health science in Groningen. She taught there, including to immigrants in Harlingen and at the ROCs in Dokkum and Leeuwarden. Most of her time, however, was taken up with work on the dairy farm in Hallum, which she ran with her husband. After they sold the farm, they settled in a residential farmhouse in Raerd, which has undergone a major renovation in recent years.

Wytske has drawn all her life. To push her boundaries, she picked up the brush and took painting lessons at Arthouse, by Bianca de Gier. Some time later, she signed up for the pilot group at the Foudgum School. There she practiced painting for three years. Wytske paints mostly figuratively in an impressionistic style. In her use of color she has a clear preference for autumn tones. She mainly paints portraits, for which photographs - such as those of Ed van der Elsken - provide the inspiration. Of her models she tries to show mainly the inner, inner world. This gives her works something contemplative: as a viewer, you wonder what is going on in the depicted figures.

Wytske's poetry is written in Frisian, her 'memmetaal'. She is trying to develop further in this field at a poetry club under the inspiring leadership of Elmar Kuiper. She finds her inspiration in different subjects: if she is touched by something, that can be the beginning of a new poem.

The exhibition in Raerd's Laurentiuskerk is on display during Tsjerkepaad from July 5 through September 6 on Saturday afternoons from 1:30 - 5:00 pm.