I was born and raised in a seaside town in North Holland and grew up surrounded by rolling dunes and tulip fields. In 1970, after a year of French studies at the Alliance Française in Paris, I moved to the United States. Over the next 20 years, I went on to study botanical painting at the New York Botanical Gardens and earned a certificate in Botanical Painting. Later on, I had the opportunity to study in England under the distinguished botanical painter Anne Marie Evans.

As a part of earning my certificate, I worked on a two-year independent research project that focused on Carolus Clusius, an important botanist in the 16th Century. He was a renaissance man and the first director of the Leiden Botanical Garden. Clusius has been called “the father of the Dutch tulip industry” as he was responsible for bringing the tulip bulb and many other plants into Holland. The research project included a dissertation and eight botanical paintings.

Experience

1989 Studied with Peter Osnato, a decorative painter in NY

1990 - 1994 Isabel O’Neill Studio for the painted finish

1995 - 2002 New York Bronx Botanical Garden

Studied with Anne-Marie Evans, Kew Gardens, United Kingdom

Studied figure drawing with Linda Capello in East Hampton and Southampton, NY

Workshop with painter Karen Kaapcka in Bridgehampton, NY

Exhibits

2002 Spring Catalog cover the NYBG

2003 Group exhibit NYBG

2004 Samadi House Yoga Studio, Montauk, NY

2005 Depot Gallery, Montauk, NY

2006 Solo exhibition at the Grenning Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY