New press - Happy clients in Singapore!

Today I received a wonderful suprise in the mail, the October issue of Expat Living (Singapore) featuring charming Marilisa Busatta and her husband in front of my painting Interior with Chinese Screen. I met Marilisa when I was exhibiting in Singapore in October last year and told me that she had seen one of my "parrot in cage "paintings at a friends house in Paris and that she fell in love with my work. We had an immediate click. So thank you Marilisa and Expat Living. I feel honoured with such tribute!

Singapour Mon Amour

They say that Asia gets under your skin and remains in your bloodstream. I was lucky to live in beautiful Singapore for 3,5 years. A regional job with a Dutch bank took me all over the place. Tokyo, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Mumbai...Asia is such a relentless source of inspiration. After every trip I came back to the beautiful colonial house in this photo (with my daughter (age 4 at the time) walking on the lawn). I had my easel on the veranda and after a trip I would paint for hours releasing the many impressions. The house (called a "Black & White") was build by the British in the '30s for their high ranking army staff. I love going back. Looking at this picture I get a bit homesick. It is the place where my creative journey started. Singapour mon amour toujour!

Showcasing - Singapore 2005 - Early days

 In this picture: gallery owner Ros Lovell, Dutch ambassador Chris Sanders & the artist

The opening 

It all started in Singapore around the year 2000. On my business card it said "Regional Director Legal & Compliance Corporate Finance". Living in a colonial mansion, travelling, working round the clock. Every time I came back from a trip my head was spinning. So I took up a hobby to relax and empty my head: painting.
I never had any formal art education. I just started, followed my instinct, translating the many impulses my brain received on canvas. Hong Kong, Tokyo, Jakarta, Mumbai... I strongly believe that I would have gone mad without the escape to my brushes. Friends were supportive and genuinely enthousiastic, started to buy my work and one thing led to the another. In 2005 (still in banking) I had my first solo exhibition in Singapore at Galerie Cho-Lon (which unfortunately closed last year). At that time we had moved back to Amsterdam (via Stockholm). In 2006 I finally dared to jump and quit my corporate job to become a full time artist and designer, blazing my own trail in a world that I am starting discover slowly but steadily.

Singapore revisited

Today I received photos of the opening of my exhibition at Originals in Singapore, courtesy of Expat Living magazine. Geri, owner of Originals, and I with Dutch ambassador Johannes W. Gruvonius Jansing who was so kind to open the exhibition.

Singapore

Today is the last day of my exhibition in Singapore. My work looked great in the space of Geri Murphy's Originals. I am happy that some beautiful pieces have found new owners!