About
The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.
- Carl Jung
The painting rises from the brushstrokes as a poem rises from the words.
The meaning comes later.
- Joan Miron Miro
visual artist
As a curious, creative person, life for me is all about discovery, investigation and expression. I have always been hungry for going beyond the horizon, for experiencing and understanding life and the world at a deeper level, and expressing my feelings and findings visually or in writing.
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As an artist/painter I am always exploring how to capture my feelings and emotions in paint. I experience the painting process as a balancing act between hope and fear, between futile holding on and hair-raising but much needed letting go. It is almost always a messy struggle to get through. And it is precisely this seemingly inevitable struggle that is the major challenge and fun of it all. And when I manage to overcome the obstacles the paintings put forth and create something which appeals to me, it's pure bliss.
Photography is something I pursue mainly on my travels. Shooting portraits can involve a similar 'struggle', as it requires finding the right person and setting, obtaining the consent of the person photographed, and making them feel at easy.​
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My motto is ‘Journeys with and without maps’*. I live, travel and paint with and without plans or maps. As an artist I am always on a journey, on my way to the unknown, to something new.
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* With a wink to Graham Greene's travel writing Journey without maps.
I am a mixed media artist/painter. My focus is on creating abstract paintings. I also make representational work. It is my wish that my work inspires and moves the viewer. I aim for my paintings to be both bold and subtle, so that they are interesting when viewed from a distance as well as close by.
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Using my intuition, experimenting, and layering/subtracting to add depth to the paintings all play an important role in my creative process. Whether I work from an intention or just start and see what comes, the work always requires going into the unknown and taking risks. I never know what the end result will look like, which therefore is always a surprise. For my abstract work I use acrylic paint and a range of other materials such as crayon, neo-pastel, ink and (self-made) collage paper.
For my realistic work nature, especially flora, is my main source of inspiration. Here I mostly use soft pastel. I have also explored water colour for painting landscapes, and made some portraits (the last ones not on this website).
Colour is an important entry point in my painting process. I usually work on a series of several paintings simultaneously. While the pieces in a series are related, each piece has its own individuality.
Education & other pursuits
I received my art training through various programs at home and abroad, notably the online Creative Visionary Program (CVP) by Art2Life/Nicholas Wilton, USA.
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In an earlier life I studied Economics (MSc, Univ. of Amsterdam, 1989) and Health Policy, Planning and Financing (MSc, with distinction, London School of Economics, joint programme with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2000). I had an over two decades’ long career in development cooperation, among which many years with UNICEF. I lived and worked abroad for about 10 years, mostly in Africa; also in New York, London. The African experience has had a lasting impact on my life, and naturally appears in my artwork.
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I travelled extensively in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe, always with my camera. While living in Africa I used to drive to remote areas to meet and photograph the traditional nomadic peoples, which resulted in a collection of portraits of them, included in this website. Back home I wrote a non-fiction book (as yet unpublished) on the immigration process of a severely traumatised African refugee in the Netherlands, whom I assisted for some years.
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I'm a Dutch national and live close to Amsterdam.
Giraffe, Samburu National Park, Kenya
Exhibitions & Memberships
Exhibitions:
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. 7 October 2023.
Art Fair Bussum, the Netherlands, 16-17 September 2023.
Group exhibition IWS Holland (Dutch branch of the International Watercolour Society), June 2022.
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​Memberships:
Artes Bussum, the local professional artists society
Art2Life Academy (Nicholas Wilton)
Art Tribe (Louise Fletcher)
Dutchies in Art (an informal group of Dutch artists who all went through the Art2Life CVP program)
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