Overview of artists

Charles Eyck (1897-1983) Charles Eyck was born in Meerssen. He studied drawing for 7 years, worked for five years as a factory worker, one year at the Academy of Visual Arts in Rotterdam, and four years at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. In 1922 he won the Prix de Rome which allowed him to go on a study tour. He lived and worked in Rotterdam, Rome, the south of France, Parijs, Stockholm, Utrecht, Fonteney aux Roses, Utrecht, Cagnes sur Mer, and from 1937 onwards in Schimmert (Arendsgenhout bij Valkenburg) with a couple of years in Curacao 1952-1953.

Pieke Dassen initially earned a living as an accordionist and player in cabaret companies. In the 1950s he sang carnival songs, often accompanied by Math Niël on piano. During that period, he was inspired to paint carnival. The artist from Maastricht is best known for his puppet show and his performance as August in The Film of Uncle Willem for VARA television. He translated various pieces into the Limburg dialect, including Der Vogelhändler (The Bird Dealer) by Carl Zeller for the Mestreechter Operètte Association.

After high school Paul became a politician, culminating in being mayor of Valkenburg aan de Geul. Later, he continued to actively work for those who could use his help and focused more on being an artist. In addition to being a politician, Paul was also a passionate artist. Inspired by the artistic blood of his uncle, Willem Hofhuizen, he made many drawings and paintings. He also liked to play with language. He could give passionate speeches that were sharp, direct and playful and wrote countless poems.

Lei Molin was a self-taught painter, graphic artist and sculptor working in oil paint, chalk, acrylic paint and gouache. His subjects were flowers, figures, portraits, still-lifes. and landscapes – sometimes abstract and sometimes figurative or expressionistic. Originally from Berg en Terblijt near Valkenburg, he later worked in North Holland and became known as one of the Amsterdam Limburgers. In 1988 he received the Jeanne Oosting Prize for painting watercolors.

After a professional career as a drummer, Ijf Blokker became a well-known television actor in the 1970s playing the character Barend Servet in the shows Wim T. Schippers directed for VPRO television. He participated in radio plays, presented the program "Puur Natuur" for VPRO television, and made several singles ("Tok", "How can that be", "Where should that go", "My tea" and " ABC"). He was also active as a comic, portrait, and advertising artist. In later years he enjoyed bicycling in South Limburg.

Helen Sieger-White came to the Netherlands from America in 1948 to study at the National Academy with the sculptor Professor Piet Esser. The urge to express herself on the flat surface was stimulated by her husband, the painter Fred Sieger (1902-1999). The works – mostly gouaches – arise from intuition and demonstrate great spontaneity. Craftsmanship combined with unwavering enthusiasm characterize her oeuvre. Her work, which balances on the border between figuration and abstraction, is included in many museum and private collections.

Sjoerd Bakker was trained in the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and is a graphic artist and painter working with oil paint, gouache and watercolor. He lives between Amsterdam and Thailand and has been on study trips to Burma and Japan where he became influenced by Japanese painting. His work deals with Asian themes, animals, nature, women and Burmese landscapes – both figurative and abstract.

Jörg Remé was born in Danzig and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg, the National Academy of Visual Arts in Amsterdam and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. He has works in public collections in both Germany and the Netherlands, including Museum Boymans-van Beuningen Rotterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Gemeentemuseum Arnhem, Museum von Moderne Kunst Strassburg, Kunsthalle Nuremberg, Museum Van Bommel Van Dam Venlo, Stadsgalerij, Heerlen and Museum Würth Künzelsau. In 2009 he was Appointed Knight in the Order of Oranje-Nassau.

Corstiaan de Vries was born in Rotterdam, where he attended the Academy of Visual Arts. He initially designed sets and costumes for ballet, the Rotterdam Theater and the musical Swingpop by Seth Gaaikema. In 1962 he moved to Laren in North Holland and discovered the colored pencil, with which he acquired an international reputation. In his more than forty-year career he portrayed many famous people including Queen Juliana, the Heineken family and Simone Kleinsma. He exhibited in Singer Laren, the North Brabant Museum in Den Bosch, the West Friesland Museum in Hoorn, the Museum Jan van der Togt in Amstelveen and in Lisse at De Oude Pastorie.

Coll Bardolet was born in Catalonia and studied in Tours (France), Brussels (Belgium) and Madrid (Spain). In 1940, he established his residence in Valldemosa on Mallorca. He painted many aquarelles, oil colours and gouaches in impressionist style, with a preference for landscape, folklore and still life. La Fundació Cultural Coll Bardolet was founded in Mallorca in 2005.

Gaspar Camps was a Spanish illustrator, commercial artist, graphic designer. He studied in Cuba and France and worked mainly in Spain. Due to the strong Mucha influence reflected in his work he was nicknamed 'Mucha Catalan'. He created both advertising and decorative works and eventually found his own style, less graphic than Mucha, and more akin to oil painting, marked by soft edges and shadings, as well as much sentiment.

Léopold Survage was a French painter of Russian-Danish-Finnish background. At a young age, he learned to play the piano in the piano factory operated by his Finnish father. After a severe illness at the age of 22, he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and became associated with the Russian avant-garde. He travelled to Western Europe, and eventually settled in Paris. Although mainly a painter, he also produced stage, tapestry, and textile designs (notably for the house of Chanel in 1933). Toward the end of the 1930s, Survage became increasingly charmed by symbols and mysticism.

Jules Vermeire was a Belgian sculptor who spent most of his life in The Hague. He descended from a family of stone masons. He attended art courses at the academies of Ghent and Antwerp. During WW 1 he came to the Netherlands and began experimenting with horn, bone, ivory, and wood, mainly in small sculptures or applied arts. He is known for his heads carved from freestone and of which the polished surface is in strong contrast with the un-touched part of the stone.

Pierre Rosenau was a French artist at the head of a cabinet making workshop in his name at the Faubourg St. Antoine in the first half of the twentieth century. He was known for his remarkable marquetry panels made of precious and indigenous woods depicting landscapes, mountains and classical scenes, people dressed in traditional attire, and animals.

Originally from Britain Austin Davies studied at the Liverpool Regional College of Art and by the age of twenty-seven had earned a reputation as one of Britain’s best up-and-coming Expressionists. He took on a lectureship at his old art school and after that his enthusiasm for theatre eventually took him to the Liverpool Playhouse where he met and married Beryl Bainbridge. He also taught art to Stu Sutcliffe and John Lennon. Austin Davies arrived in New Zealand from England in 1974. In 1976 he became the first professional director of the Suter Gallery in Nelson, a position he held until 1994. Davies has used the vocabulary and architecture of the theatre, the backdrops, flats, rostra, and thrust stage floors to build a dramatic set for his paintings.

Born in Paris, Colette Morey de Morand gained a science degree at the University of Toronto, before studying painting and printmaking in New Zealand and Ontario. Exploring issues of life, death, sex, birth and memory, Morey de Morand's paintings interweave vivid colour with geometric form. Created intuitively, layer by layer, over long periods of time, the paintings develop slowly.

(Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Raukawa) is originally from Haumoana, Hawkes Bay. With a background studying Architecture and Art History, Scott has found inspiration from design and architecture, as well as culturally through traditional Māori tattoo and his whanau (family). He identifies as a mixed media artist and designer and is known for his print series and wooden panels. Using this technique, Scott was commissioned to create 12 carvings for Te Oro arts centre in Glen Innes. Scott has exhibited throughout New Zealand and internationally in Portugal, the Netherlands and Germany

Ngati Raukawa tribe (Iwi).Hapu: Tukorehe After employment as a landscaper, postman, dustman and researcher Alan became a full-time artist in 1992. He began by assembling and selling lead glass windows, then developing the art of carving, and from 1998 began painting with oils and working with wood. In 2001 he moved into his own studio in Paikakariki, introducing metal into his work and experimenting with mixed media. He has exhibited in galleries throughout New Zealand

After training as an art teacher, John Drawbridge, painter and printmaker, was awarded the National Art Gallery travelling scholarship in 1957 and studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London. His initial interest in textile design shifted to printmaking and he gained wider experience in Paris. He was commissioned to produce a large mural for New Zealand House in London. On his return to New Zealand, he set up house at Island Bay, Wellington, and for nearly 40 years explored the colours, forms and rhythms of this coastal environment. He completed many major oil paintings, etchings, watercolours and works on paper as well as public murals such as in the Beehive (Parliament Buildings) Radio New Zealand House and the National Library in Wellington.

Andrea Mae Miller grew up living at the beach on Northland’s beautiful Tutukaka coast in New Zealand. In 1998 Andrea began a diploma in Applied Arts at Northland Polytechnic, specializing in Jewellery and Ceramics. She participated in an exhibition exchange with Northern Territories University, in Darwin, Australia, curating the exhibition with one other representative from her class. She obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Otago Polytechnic in 2002 majoring in Printmaking. After graduation she established her studio, St Peter’s Thumb, in Petone. In 2006 she spent a year living and working in Copenhagen, Denmark. She works mostly as a Fine Art Printmaker.

Jo Ogier is a graduate from the Otago School of Art and is based in Christchurch. She also holds a Diploma in Plant and Wildlife Illustration (NSW Australia), along with a series of scholarships and awards - including the William Hodges Fellowship in 2000. She is concerned with issues of conservation, ecology, and the individual's role in nurturing, protecting, and preserving our fragile world. Through her finely crafted woodcuts Ogier seeks to promote public awareness of the many endemic species of flora and fauna in New Zealand. She produces woodcuts using the Japanese keyblock method. She then prints onto handmade harakeke (NZ flax) paper to achieve works with a uniquely New Zealand signature.

Margaret Woolley started exhibiting in 1971 and in 1973 won Premier Prize at the Pakuranga Arts Society Competition. In 1978 she attended the Richmond Art College in London. In 1984 she was Invite to the Adelaide Arts Festival. Margaret is represented in collections in Australia, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Portugal and the U.S.A. Today she lives in retirement in Auckland with her husband. They frequently travel to Australia where they both share a love of yacht racing.

David Armitage is a Tasmanian who trained in Melbourne and spent some time in New Zealand. He painted and ran the City Art Gallery programme in Auckland before going to live in East Sussex in 1973. David Armitage is a contemporary artist with a talent for evoking the human condition through the use of colour. His works have been showcased in exhibitions around the world, while his classic children's books written by his wife Ronda remain in circulation 45 years after their release. David's style has shifted and evolved over his 50-year career, owing to his bold experimentation and endless practice.

Auguste Moreau was born in Paris, the youngest son of sculptor and painter Jean-Baptiste Moreau. Each of the three Moreau brothers – Hippolyte, Marthurin and Auguste – have become renowned for the quality and the beauty of their figurative sculpture. In 1861, Auguste made his debut at the Salon where he exhibited regularly. His subjects were primarily young maidens sensuously clad in swirling diaphanous dress and usually decorated with flowers and birds, or allegorical and genre scenes incorporating cupids and young children. His style was realistic and graceful, revealing his relation to the other members of the Moreau family.

Jeroen Melkert trained at the Academy of Visual Arts in Arnhem, where he was particularly interested in painting, drawing and sculpting and created performances with masks made of stone. His sculptures from that time were based on parts of limbs, faces and bodies. After completing his studies, he continued with sculptures and performances and has exhibited in Eindhoven, Arnhem Museum of Modern Art, Nijmegen and Apeldoorn. He has received several grants from the Fonds Visual Arts in Amsterdam. He has also had assignments from various municipalities including Elst, Arnhem, Beuningen, Apeldoorn and Nijmegen.

Born in the King country (New Zealand) of Irish, Scottish, European, and Māori heritage, Kerry Strongman retired from the business world to become a full-time artist. He travelled extensively and drew his artistic inspiration from a wide range of cultural and philosophical viewpoints. Most of Kerry’s sculptures have found a home in private collections of art collectors who appreciate great forms and extremely rare timber. Kerry has been embraced by many Shamans, Tohunga’s (Maori Shaman) and Medicine men from Aboriginal peoples throughout the world and drew on much inherent and learnt knowledge in creating special pieces.

As a part-Hawaiian raised on the windward side of Oahu, Joseph has lived in Kailua, nestled amongst the Ko’olau mountain range and the expanse of the Pacific Ocean. He began creating stained glass pieces that reflected the beauty of his surroundings, designing windows, doors, lamps, and panels. Many of his works incorporate the Windward mountains, capes, and coastal seascapes. He has completed many commissioned works both in Hawaii and Japan.

Beet Grotjohann studied at the Institute for Arts and Crafts in Amsterdam. He is a painter, glass and graphic artist and draughtsman, working with glass in lead and oil paint. In 1967 he was awarded the Therese van Duyl-Schwartze prize for his drawing, De Grijze Havens (The Gray Ports). He is a member of the Association of Visual Artists and Maatschappij Arti et Amicitiae. Bert Grotjohann holds exhibitions regularly and realizes monumental commissions in glass appliqué or stained glass. “He paints as a constructor, an archaeologist who excavates classical civilizations, uncovers the ultimate mystery, and nevertheless maintains the secret.”

Salvador Dali was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, printmaker, designer, sculptor, filmmaker, and writer. He was one of the leading figures in Surrealism, and his enormous talent for self-publicity made him an international celebrity. During the 1930s Dalí painted many of the pictures for which he is now most famous. He took part in several of the major Surrealist group shows, including the International Surrealist Exhibition in London in 1936. There are two museums dedicated to his work: the Teatre-Museu Dalí, established in Figueras in 1974, and the Salvador Dalí Museum, in St Petersburg, Florida, established in 1982.

M.C.Escher studied at the Applied Arts School in Haarlem. He lived and worked in Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Delft, Haarlem, Rome, Switzerland, Belgium and after 1941 in Baarn. He became a member of Arti et Amicitiae in Amsterdam in 1964.In the National collection there is a large collection of his graphic work.