Interview
 
Your artistic career began relatively late
 
True. I began painting when I was 33 in 1983. I'd always wanted to be an artist but art was not part of our family tradition. The turning point came at the Documenta in 1982 [organized by Rudi Fuchs] in Kassel, which I experienced as a really great painters feast. I had studied art history in Paris and became an art critic, but always longed to be an artist. The turning point in my career was the first show of my work in 1984 in a very special location, the Royal palace in Amsterdam, after I received the “Koninklijke Subsidie voor de Vrije Schilderkunst”, a royal award. The first comment (fortunately favorable) on my work was by the queen, the second by a member of the jury, the painter Armando: I was an artist.
 
Did you develop your own individual imagery quickly
 
At secondary school I did gouaches similar to those I make now - much simpler but with many colors merging into an abstract form. My teacher, surprisingly enough, appreciated this sort of work. The basics of my work were present, but becoming an artist is very different. The chance of losing the essence is very large - perhaps even necessary. You have to work your way through the different styles of art throughout the ages, and then find your own essence back. From there on, you start working at a higher level. You never know however what you are after, and that’s why you keep painting.
 
Your paint seems thickly applied
 
It consists of many layers, but hopefully in the end this will create a fresh and nonchalant effect. The “process” is intense; you’re searching to find the "secret". You seek the feeling of substance without losing liveliness- a combination difficult to obtain. Sometimes you get carried along in the flow, almost as though '"It" paints itself. These experiences determine the atmosphere of the canvas and add a third dimension of self-evident naturalness.

  
Are you an intuitive painter
I rely on my feelings - more physically than mentally. The knowledge of the body through gesture, arm length, suppleness of the wrist and flexibility of the muscles all contribute to an infallible trust, greater than my intellectual capacity.
 
What inspires you
 
Passion drives me - art must be a furnace glowing within you. I realize the boldness of this statement; I've mistrusted statements like these for a long time. However, when I see the work of such artists as Tintoretto, Rubens, Delacroix, Cézanne, van Gogh and de Kooning, my barriers are down, and I long to live as they did. Their world is mine.
 
Someone wrote about your work as having something infinite
 
What I portray is boundless but not consciously so. This is perhaps because I'm so intensely involved in the composition. Cézanne made impressionism robust and connected it with classical tradition. I want to define a solid structure in the boundlessness. My work, as a result, is often stodgy but the "secret" lives in a good composition.
 
Your work also shows a close relationship to nature 
It involves nature. I feel drawn to Pollock's work. Jiddhu Krishnamurti and the Hopi-Indians -coincidently also my two compass points - influenced him. In our culture, man tries to control nature while I try to be one with nature. I strive to make my work a part of nature, not just an impression.
 
I also see Eastern influences in your work
 
I like the Indian prints very much, certainly the ones from the Moghul era, and I find the atmosphere of the refined Chinese art inspiring. However, I am an artist from the North and very much aware of the “weight” of matter. The Dutch landscape painting enjoys an honorable tradition - a tradition to which I belong and of which I'm proud to be part of, and one I can contribute to.