Nature

I remember from my childhood that my father took me and my brothers to the fields near a moor close to Oirschot in the south of Holland. We got up very early to see some grouse in the distance. That was in the 1980s. Those grouse have disappeared, just like the heather that was still there at the time. Because of the mega stables and the emission of ammonia from agriculture. Those grouse were the last of the mohicans, because after that they disappeared from Brabant quite quickly. It is a shock to realize that the destruction of nature is also taking place so close to home and continues to this day. And that no one seems to really care and think about it.

That interest and feeling for nature has always been there and is also reflected in my paintings and drawings. That love for nature and everything that lives. I got that from my parents.

I believe that everything that lives occupies a unique place in nature and deserves its place (you could say it is entitled to its own house) and that every form of life is something to be frugal with. This often plays a role in my paintings and drawings. In the design and composition and in the subjects. The way we shape our environment reflects our views on this. A society that destroys its own natural environment cannot be called civilization.