‘I was born in a small village near ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Brabant, The Netherlands and count myself lucky to have working class people parents whom regognised my talent at an early age since I was drawing whenever I had the chance. At the age of 12 my father and I visited on my request the Rembrandt exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam in 1969. Besides what I’ve seen by then on the walls at primaryschool, and I was very impressed by it, this was my first introduction in 17th century Dutch art. After high school I studied three years thorough classical art education at the Möller Institute in Tilburg, to become an artteacher at my parents request. I switshed in 1979 to the Royal Academy of Fine Art and Design in ‘s-Hertogenbosch because I felt deeply engaged by autonomous art and artists and was eager to develop myself in this direction. I studied with the ‘Amsterdam Limburgman’, and was graduated, with my thesis on the works by John Cage, by Lei Molin and Ger Lataster in 1982. After my education I was very eager to work independent in my own studio. An studio offer I couldn’t refuse(!) brought me to the north of the country but I still feel deeply related to the great Brabant painting tradition. My work and the way it developed is influenced by the American school of abstract painters and the early contemporary composers, as well by the Dutch, the Danish and other European abstract painters in the early 20th century. My work deals with my emotional bond with shapes, materials and colours in which I always strive for a certain contrast that expresses a sense of being affected that I recognize in myself and things around me. It is this synthetic concretism where-in I strive for a fusion, within concrete painting, between the monochrome and the painterly gesture and thus give new meaning to the concept of painting within the fundamental imagery.’