On this website you can view my oilpaintings, sketches and drawings.
Drawing and painting has been a part of my life since my childhood. In later years I studied oilpainting at the Leiden Painting Society "Ars Aemula Naturae".
People ( portraits ) and their environment ( landscapes ) are my main topics.
I am painting in the Dutch realistic tradition of portrait- and landscape painting. My major examples are the Dutch masters of the Golden Age and the (post) impressionist Dutch painters around the turn of the 19th century. But I also admire the French impressionists and the Italian Renaissance painters.
A part of my life I stayed in Japan. I discovered the beauty of Japanese art and developed a special interest in Japanese woodblock prints and painting. Moreover I discovered a different way of thinking and a different way of looking at reality.
Apart from my general interest in the history of Dutch and European painting I have a special interest in the interaction between Western painting and modern Japanese painting in the 19th century.
Just like several 19th century painters I traded bustling city life for the quiet countryside. In an almost pastoral environment I now experience farming- and wild life embedded in the change of seasons.
On my weblog I write observations and ideas on these and other subjects.
