Born on Curacao and raised in the Netherlands and in the Caribbean, I have lived since March 2005 in the United States. As a teenager, I was very fortunate to be a student of the Caribbean painter Luis (Luigi) Benjamin Pinedo, who introduced me to oil and pastel. Although I participated in art shows, accepted commissions, and sold my art in the Caribbean, United States and Europe over the past 20 years, I was still considering painting as a hobby besides my full time office job. In 2009 I turned my passion and hobby into a career. For the past couple of years my heart...more