Jan Roelandse painted almost his entire life preferably outdoors in nature. With his painting materials, he went out in Leiden and the surrounding area to put his subjects on canvas in one go, without preliminary sketches. Like the other painters of the Leiden School, including Chris van der Windt and Willem van der Nat, he followed the style of the Hague School. Roelandse also often painted from the water. As the son of a skipper, he always owned a boat, including a fine boeier. With it, he sailed throughout the Netherlands and sketched and drew along the way. He sold many of his paintings through the Leiden art dealership Sala. In 1949, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the museum De Lakenhal.