About
What I need most of all is colour, always, always!
- Claude Monet
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I look at my paintings, speculate about them. They baffle me, too. That's all I'm painting for.
- Philp Guston
Artist statement
The things that energise me most in life are discovery, investigation and the subsequent visual expression of my feelings and findings. I see painting as a process of open exploration into myself, into life, the world. As a process which entails looking inwardly and outwardly, experimenting, taking risks, adjusting and readjusting - going back and forth until the result feels right. As such, I experience painting as a balancing act between hope and fear, between futile holding on and hair-raising letting go. It is precisely this struggle where the juice is - the major challenge and enjoyment of it all! And when I manage to overcome the obstacles the paintings put forth and create something which sits right with me, it is pure bliss.​​
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I paint for me first. I paint because I find painting exhilarating. I paint to stay sane in an increasingly unhinged world. I paint to balance life with an incurable, impairing condition which has led to so much loss. At the same time, with my artwork I wish to inspire and move the viewer. By revealing, through my art, how I see or experience life I invite the viewer into my world, intending to make him/her see things in a new light.
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I create both realistic and abstract artwork, using a range of materials, with soft pastel (realistic) and acrylic paint (abstract) as base materials. I like to incorporate self-made collage papers in my work. Especially in my abstract work I start out working intuitively, alternating intuition more and more with analysis as a painting moves towards its final stages. Nature, travel and life experiences are major sources of inspiration. Colour is an important entry into my work. Layering, subtraction and glazing to add depth to my paintings are natural aspects of my process. I usually work in series based on a theme or idea.
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My motto is ‘Journeys with and without maps’*. I live, travel, paint and photograph both with and without a plan or map. As an artist I am always venturing into the unknown, forever moving towards something new, something unexpected that surprises me. It makes for an exciting life!
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* With a wink to Graham Greene's travel writing Journey without maps.
Education & other pursuits
I was first introduced to intuitive painting by a stroke of luck around 2005. I instantly loved it, but had no opportunity to immerse myself. In 2020, having left my old field of work, I decided to pursue a professional career as a visual artist. I undertook art classes through a range of programs and courses at home and abroad, notably the Creative Visionary Program (CVP) (online) by Art2Life/Nicholas Wilton, USA; Louise Fletcher's Find your Voice program (online), UK; and with Nikki van Es at the Gooise Academy, the Netherlands. I'm currently following a year-long education program in modern art history (Vrije Academie).
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In an earlier life I had a two decades’ long career as an economist and health economist in development cooperation, 10 years of which I lived and worked abroad, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, also New York, London.
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I travelled extensively around the world. I was lucky to reside in and roam around Africa in the pre-digital era.
This allowed me to still experience what I call the 'old' Africa - a world entirely different from the one into which I was born and raised, and where I could be out of touch with the rest of the planet entirely when venturing off into bush or savannah - and feel absolutely free and elated. (The similarities with the painting experience are striking!) It was there that I picked up photography, which I have been pursuing as an amateur ever since during my travels and as an input to my painting process. My photographing of the traditional African tribes whose path I crossed resulted in a collection of nomadic portraits presented in this website. It has been, with hindsight, my love of photography, and colour, which led me to painting.​
I am an avid reader of fiction and non-fiction. Books on art, history and nature are among my favourites. I love old maps and atlases; remote places, tropical zones, foreign cultures. I live close to Amsterdam.
Exhibitions & Memberships
Exhibitions:
Art Fair Bussum Cultureel. September 2025.
Art Fair Brinkhuis Laren, with Gooise Academie. September 2025.
Art Laren, the Netherlands, where I participated as part of group-expo by the Gooise Academie. June 2025.
Sunday Art City Muiden open studios, Muiden, the Netherlands, where I participated as a guest. May 2025.
Uitmarkt Huizen. September 2024.
Open studios (Open Atelier Route), Bussum. June 2024.
Group sales exhibition in pop-up gallery/art center Artes Bussum, Dec. 2023 – April 2024.
Group exhibition for emerging artists, Majella Kapel, Bussum, the Netherlands. October 2023.
Art Fair Bussum Cultureel, the Netherlands. September 2023.
Group exhibition IWS Holland (Dutch branch of the International Watercolour Society), the Netherlands. June 2022.
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​Memberships:
Artes Bussum, the local professional artists society
Dutchies in CVP (an informal group of Dutch artists who all went through the Art2Life CVP art training program)
