In the sixties, my parents moved from catholic Brabant to this deeply protestant peninsula Walcheren. I was born on the Dam of Middelburg in Zeeland...
Being a first child for my parents, they also gifted me two sisters and one brother. We lived in a house near the sea and I went to a small and very pleasant catholic middle school headed by a church-brother. Reading, drawing and playtime were stimulated..
Senior school was quite the opposite; protestant with the Bible as the manual for life, and lots of do’s en don’ts. Being an outsider and realizing the impact of presentation I think this period may have shaped my interest in fashion. when daydreaming at school I altered the reality by making it look better, more colorful. Until the age of 17, I was convinced that Art academy was my journey. Then I opted out for something more practical and less serious than arts..
Today, looking back, I think my youth is best reflected in the sea paintings..
It has become clear that painting, as practiced traditionally, is what I prefer. Paintings that reflect the reality as we can experience it, and realizing that this is about impossible, have a certain humor and irony, and certainly should not be too serious...
