The Netherlands

 

 

In 1954 I saw daylight for the very first time in the little Dutch town of Meppel in the province of Drenthe.

 

In my last primary school class I became more interested in drawing , because we had a project to complete for the national holiday, the queen´s day.This project was organized in all the primary schools in Meppel. My drawing was chosen to hang in the local newspaper window. I was very proud.....

 

In the year 1969 I went with my father to the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam to visit the exhibition Rembrandt 1696-1969. ( I still own the cataloque as a souvenir ).

 

In 1970 I went to the Dali exhibition in Rotterdam and that was a real shock for me in a positive way.

I was so impressed by the paintings of Rembrandt and Dali that I decided to become a painter.

 

After secondary school I attended the academy of arts Minerva in Groningen, from 1972 untill 1978. A college of free painting and free graphic arts.

 

My academy-professors were Geert Meyer, Ger Siks, Diederik Kraaijpoel, Wout Muller, Piet Pijn, Jouke Wouda, Wim van Veen and Henk Hester .

 

My mentor in the graduate year was Geert Meyer

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Belgium

 

INow I live and work as a painter already many years ( since 1994 ) in the quiet region of the Eifel on the border of Belgium and Germany. Regulary I have exibitions in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

 

My painting style is realism with a melancholic, mystical strain, bordered on the Magical Realism of the nineteen thirties, fourties untill now....

Painters that I adore from this period are for example Pyke Koch, Wim Schuhmacher, Raoul Hynkes, Dick Ket and Carel Willink and many more....

 

I also enjoy looking at the paintings of the Flemish Primitifs, painted by Jan van Eick, Hans Memling, Dirk Bouts and Hugo van der Goes.

 

The reason I paint the way I do, is because my inner feelings are reflected and portray a deeper feeling to life. In fact it has much to do with the vanitas-theme.

 

That is also why I don`t try to create nice pictures in the common sense, but rather ´the story of the fragility of living on this earth `. But also ´ the sublime ` is an important and fascinating issue in my perception.

 

This emotion is mysterious to me and motivates me to paint these topics. I want to transform this emotion into paintings that everybody recognizes.