The beginning

I have been fascinated by Photorealism since the late 1970s. I remember it well, I was in my senior year of high school and had drawing and art history as my exam subjects. In the art history book I saw an image of a painting of an Airstream, one of those shiny American caravans. I was stunned, I had never seen anything like it. I thought to myself "so there are artists who make paintings that look exactly like photographs".

That's what I wanted too...

In the meantime

I had been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember and everyone thought I was so good at it and advised me to take a Graphics Arts education. I did that, but I didn't really do much drawing and painting there. It was, however, a great time where I made lifelong friends and very importantly learned to work accurately. Because you have to be accurate if you want to paint Photorealistic and have endless patience.

In the meantime I have worked for various advertising and design agencies. I was still painting but what came on the canvas was not what I had in mind. This was the time before the internet, where you can find everything you are looking for. There were a few painting technique books in the library, but they didn't say anything about Photorealism.

I then threw myself completely into photography. I spent hours in my darkroom printing beautiful black and white photos. Until computers and Photoshop came along. Both at work and in my spare time I was involved in that and at one point I was called the "pixel king".

And now, Photorealistic art with a touch of nostalgia

At the beginning of this millennium I dusted off my pencils, brushes and tubes of paint and went to work fanatically. Took a course in 17th century painting techniques and learned a lot by asking questions to artists I found on the internet.

Since 2003 I have been working full-time with Photorealism. I work in a number of different series such as "Amsterdam!" and "Memories of a happy childhood".

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