‘Untold Stories’

The title of this illustration is based on a text of Marcus Cumberlege: "Some priceless moments have not been recorded". The picture itself brings my memory back to one of my bicycle trips around France. Next to a road there was a neglected statue - a high concrete tube with an old car from a fair carrousel on top. (This was my inspiration for this picture).

There are three stories in this painting, based on two real events, while the third story is imaginary. The first story is one I participated in here at home in our garden with my lovely Linda. The second story happened in the village of Watou when I was there to visit friends and to visit the well-known summer exhibition in that village near the French-Flemish border. This time I didn't participate, but the bath was outside in the garden, it was also a warm summer night, and the two friends who lived there were ready to take a bath outside in the garden. Just the same act as Linda and I did before. Each of these events happened on a warm and lovely summer night. I gave them my own interpretations. The third story is two persons in the bath nowadays, representing me with a friend. But this third story never happened and is imaginary.

A couple is looking at a painting in a museum: "Chicken with two eggs".

The painting is based on a real life photo I took during a long walk in and around the Dutch village of Thorn. The sky was dramatic and the cyclist is riding on a path at a bit higher level. The sun shone at that moment from where the cyclist was riding. So it is against the light. The size of this picture is bigger than the rest at 80cm x 60cm.

Two woman are balancing on a kind of balance with in the middle an animal (a cat ?) to control them, or to keep them in a balance of life ?

A man stands inside an art gallery where he has his exhibition, and from behind an old window he is looking outside. He's terribly bored. Because many people are walking by in front of his exhibition, but nobody enters.

I was bicycling on possibly the highest road - about 4,000 meters high - in Kirgizstan. And I couldn't resist making an illustration from these magic moments.

A long time ago I made, together with my best cycling friend Hendrik, a bicycle trip in Kirgizstan. I made a few impressions - sketches from a three weeks' memorable trip. Here are a few locals watching us. It was a perfect composition for me to make a sketch from it. They probably enjoyed us as well - as crazy strangers on bicycles, visiting their way of life and country.

I made this to celebrate a moment of change and to tell my two sisters that we are now three sisters. They have always accepted me in my big struggle to become the person I always wanted to be.