The contrasts associated with being born during the Nazi occupation of Holland, and then a few years later, emigrating to the tropics of Australia with my parents made a lasting impression on my memories. I vividly remember the amazing differences of the life and lifestyles in bustling Amsterdam from the laid-back approaches to the lifestyle and culture of tropical North Queensland in those immediate W.W.2 post-war times. I grew up and was schooled in the vast open spaces, the warmth and the rambling freedom of Cairns which was then only a small country town. These impressions, I'm sure, impacted on my young consciousness leading me to express my love for these, through painting and lately through writing. I wanted to record my experiences – some amusing, some not – with paint and pen.

Beginning my working life as a teacher, eventually my passion for art drew me into a career as a full-time professional artist. Married with two grown-up sons and two grand-daughters I now live in a beautiful historic village in the mountains of the Atherton Tablelands behind Cairns.