Who I am
My love for ceramics grew from amateurish trials to become a real passion. I started many years ago. The South-African artist Nico van Staeden introduced me to the craft, but soon I signed up for more intensive trainings, like the one with raku specialist Rudie De Lange. At the same time, my interest became deeper and more diversified. During my holidays I visited ceramists in France such as Michel Perfetti, Jean-Pierre Cholet, Seoung-Ho Yang (from Korea), Hugh West (from Scotland), and Christine Limosino Favretto, and I took part in master classes by Patty Wouters, Ivo Nijs, Henk Wolvers and Steve Matisson.
Ceramics offers great opportunities to those looking for synergy between forms, colours, and textures. For this reason a creative language doesn't need figurative suggestions in order to get a meaning. Harmony between forms or structures, colours and textures has its own expressive power. So, some of my works do not have a title. However, do not think I hate figurative creations. Very often they deal with interesting themes. That is the reason why I also love working on the potters wheel.
Nature is a source of inspiration that is very much loved by ceramists. Photography helps me to translate it into ceramic art. But forms and colours are not the only elements that allow me to express my perceptions of nature's richness. Another expressive dimension is developed by playing with words, sentences, and linguistic symbols. My highest preference goes to the Japanese art of haikus and tankas... in Dutch, of course, my mother tongue.