Newsletter 26 Jan 2025
It’s never too late to start with New Year’s resolutions, right? I’m starting today with mine: sending newsletters (with some regularity). I’ve been less active on social media in the past months – I sometimes wonder what I’m doing there. Perhaps this medium suits me better. And that fits well with my theme/motto for 2025: stay true to yourself. Because how often do we do things that we don’t really want (and aren’t even necessary)? And vice versa: not doing something when deep down you really want to.
This fresh start feels like a good time to properly introduce myself. You probably know me as a painter. Painting is what I was made for, it feels like. The thing I have been looking for until I was 30. As a child I liked to draw and later I experimented with paint. But it didn’t feel like my calling and I did a lot of other things. To illustrate: I was briefly in the army, obtained a cum laude bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology, followed a course to become a fitness instructor (but did not finish) and finally was trained as a furniture upholsterer. Of course none of this was it and searching for that one thing became tiring. Hopeless even, resulting in a depression. In retrospect I’m grateful for that. That pain has given me a deeper insight into myself and forced me to choose for what I wanted so badly deep inside. Now I get so much inspiration from that process. And I hope to inspire others to connect with their inner self. It was meant to be this way.

One of my new paintings symbolically depicts this process.
‘Alignment’ shows a vulnerable figure, shrouded in darkness. The raven flying overhead predicts insight and the time for transformation is ripe: planets align, offering the right conditions.
Behind the horizon the sun rises..
This painting and other new works will be on display and for sale during group exhibition “The Female Approach” at Galerie Bonnard from February 16 to April 6. The opening will take place on February 16th at 14.30 (live music from 14.00). My work will be among paintings and sculptures of other, amazing artists. I am really looking forward to it; it’s a dream come true! Hope to see you there : )
Galerie Bonnard
Berg 9, Nuenen
www.galeriebonnard.com
PS: I also have a tv-show tip. NPO 1 Omroep MAX is showing the new program ‘De Gezonken Meesters’, a sequel to ‘De Nieuwe Vermeer’. It focuses on 6 Dutch masterpieces that were lost with the sinking of the ship Vrouw Maria in 1771. Be sure to watch the episode on Sunday February 2nd at 20.25! ; )