Abstract
India
After a 25 year wait (life circumstances), in January 2025 I finally made it to India, the long-time number 1 country on my travel wish list. India proved to be everything I had hoped for, and much more. The abundance of colour, the vast cultural heritage and the kind and beautiful people make it an artist's paradise. It was love at first sight. This series is about that first Indian experience, and the future ones that most certainly will come.
African Laughter
Sub-Saharan Africa, where I lived, worked and travelled for over two decades, has made a lasting impression on me. Hence it naturally is a great source of inspiration for my work. I need to paint about it. But how? Africa stands for so much. I am exploring what exactly that is, and how to express how I feel about my past experience there. The project focuses on the Great African Rift Valley area, where I lived longest (Kenya) and travelled most extensively, and where I got my first and most profound African memories from.This series of 8 pieces represents the first step on this journey.
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Butterflies
The paintings in this series are about transformation, a vital aspect of the magic of the creative process. They are about awareness, patience and trust, all required elements for the process to unfold naturally. It's about joy, lightness and freedom in creating, about longing and fulfilment through transformative creation.
Small collage works
I enjoy making my own collage papers with wet strength tissue paper and (often transparent) paint or ink, applying various techniques. Besides sticking them in my paintings, I make small stand- alone collage paintings by combining and assembling (pieces of) these papers, applying multiple layers, and drawing back into them. I also use the collage papers in concertina (harmonica) sketchbooks. The perpetuum paintings presented here (the long 'landscape' ones at the end) consist of a number of consecutive pages in these books.
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Realistic
Flora
I love all things flora - trees, plants, flowers, seeds - their shapes, lines and colours. My love of the honesty plant (in Dutch: Judaskruid/penning) and of sunflowers, especially when they are in a state of decay, prompted me to create series on both.
This Flora category also contains individual paintings and drawings of flowers and crops. All paintings are made with soft pastel, the drawings with charcoal.
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Nomadic portraits
During more than two decades (1989 - 2012) of living, working and traveling in Africa, especially the East-African Rift Valley, I undertook many trips to remote areas. Instantly fascinated by the astonishing and proud looks of the nomadic people in Kenya I started photographing them. A collection of portraits of people of the various nomadic tribes was the result, including the Maasai, Pokot, Samburu and Turkana. I have added them to this website as part of the Africa project I am working on.