My Story

I am a self-taught artist and illustrator who grew up in East Africa.

Based in Berlin, I specialise in painting animals and naturalistic scenes in watercolour, a medium I first began using at my Rudolf Steiner school as a child. Later I was further encouraged in watercolour by my grandmother who, amongst other things, was a skilled aquarellist. 

My inspiration has come primarily from my love of water, its interaction with human life and its role in the organic world. The sound of water is calming whether it's a burbling stream, rain on the roof, or waves on the shore. The feel of water is for me cleansing and redeeming whether I'm plunging into the lake, sinking into a warm bath, or knocking back a cold beer. But most of all it's the sight of water in its many forms that is most sublime to so many of us artists and illustrators. Clouds building along the side of the mountains. Waves capping white under a gun-metal sky. Limpid infinity falling off the edge of the reef. Or the thin first dusting of snow on the street you grew up on. These are the sights that get me going. 

Water's various colours and structures can both contrast strongly with the organic world and of course be reproduced through it. This makes it a great subject for naturalistic artists and illustrators like me. The medium of watercolour itself requires letting go and allowing the water a degree of freedom to distribute the pigment where it will. As cliche as it sounds, the creative process becomes a dialog between the painter and their medium.

Growing up in forests with a zoologist for a father gave me the opportunity to see wild animals in their natural habitat. I was fascinated with animal movement and musculature even more than with their brilliant colours. This has led me to devote much of my illustration so far to the wildlife and landscapes of Eastern and Southern Africa as well as those of Northern and Central Europe.

This autumn I intend on shifting my focus to painting the wildlife of Southern and Central Asia, from which I hope to produce my next two collections.