Diederik Kraaijpoel, artist, author, March 2006
The paintings of Kees Thijn are symbolic works of art. The spectator can fill up the meaning of the symbolic works himself. The work merely consists of recognisable objects, such as a chess-man, a rusty nail or flowers, and all these items are painted directly from nature.
Prof. Henk van Os, September 2002, Former Managing Director of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Professor of ‘Art and Society’ at the University of Amsterdam
Gerard Dou (a sixteenth-century Dutch artist, one of the ‘Leiden precision painters’) left behind a long tradition as a precision painter, and somewhere in the most modern line of this tradition one can find the works of precision painter Kees Thijn.
Kees is not only a precision painter, something special is going on here. In his works two aspects are present, association and transformation. When he has just, very meticulously started to paint a butterfly, a china vase or something else, it seems as if he surprises himself halfway through the process and associates it again with something different or even fills it up with something which is in total contrast – for example, a beautifully painted vase with milk pouring out of it.
Kees Thijn is a precision painter who is constantly occupied with his product during the painting process. That is exciting!
Eric Bos, art critic, December 2002
In the 1960s, a Dutch painter who let the sun shine in the grey reconstructed streets of Amsterdam became popular. This artist was Melle. I remember clearly that at that time there was an exhibition of his works at the famous Gallery Mokum in Amsterdam.