Born 1942 in Pretoria, Koos van Ellinckhuijzen has led quite a versatile life, beginning with a military career.
When working as a ranger for Nature Conservation in the seventies, he began to train himself as a painter. He never attended any art classes. The more surprising is the perfection in all techniques he uses, like aquarelle, oil on canvas, airbrush, gouache and sculpturing. Van Ellinckhuijzen is convinced that ‘theme dictates medium style and technique’.Sculpture, the painting of the metaphysical, the surreal as well as astrophysical panoramas are his personal preferences. He designed several series of postage stamps for Southern African countries.Astrophysical themes like ‘The solar system’, ‘Halley’s comet’ and ‘Satellites in orbit’ have become popular among stamp collectors and philatelists.For the last 20 years he focused on his self generated three dimensional ‘Stereoptic’ creations. For his artwork ‘Nativity’, Van Ellinckhuijzen received the first price during an international 3-D exhibition, 1993 in Rochester NY, USA. In 1990 it was also on exhibition in Gurzuf on the Crimean peninsula of former Soviet Union.Until today this artwork remains the first and only manually produced stereo painting.The stereoscope and 15 other masterpieces of Koos van Ellinckhuijzen will be exhibited at Namibian Jewelers & Arts, 55 Sam Nujoma Avenue, Swakopmund from 4th June until 5th August. The exhibition will be opened on Saturday 4th June, 17h00.
