I am a sculptor, based in Lancashire with work spread from New Zealand and Hong Kong to Europe and America. Originally from the Netherlands, I trained at art colleges in London and Manchester. Most of my work starts with a story, as I believe we are all born storytellers. Through stories we make sense of the world, we make sense of our experiences, and we connect with one another.
In the year 2000 I moved to Lancashire, where I fell in love with the landscape and began to create sculptures in response to its history and folklore. I set out to place these sculptures outside, back in the places where they most resonate; in the natural landscape, in parks and in towns. I decided to work in steel, for which we have - in this county – the most up to date technology allowing sculptures to be created at almost any scale.
In 2008 I was commissioned by United Utilities to create a heron, which stands at the water's edge of Entwistle Reservoir, at 2.7metres tall. Made from galvanised steel it blends beautifully into the elements and is a treasured landmark admired by walkers and the local community.
Situated in Darwen’s Bold Venture Park, I recreated a Victorian parlour in response to the life of wallpaper designer James Huntington. It is a gigantic, playful feature irresistible to children, and a resting place much appreciated by families and hikers on the long climb up to Darwen Tower.
Sir Hare, at more than 3.5 m. in corten steel is my largest piece thus far. It has drawn crowds in Liverpool where it stood in the Baltic Triangle for more than a year, in Gisburn Forest and until June '23 in Whitaker Park, Rossendale. It is currently a stunning sight for visitors to Wyresdale Park in The Forest of Bowland.
The hare, a once plentiful creature in the fields where I grew up, is now another priority species of local concern. I am fascinated to discover how present it is in our storylore. “Sir Hare” is one of the 77 names given to the creature in a late 13th Century middle English poem - said to be recited by a hunter on his first encounter with the animal. Several Lancashire sources give us accounts of supernatural hares which shape-shift, speak to us in our language and fill us with a sense of dread. We find them in the history of the Pendle Witches and in ‘The White Dobbie’, a ghost story from across Morecambe Bay. It tells us of encounters with a Boggart, a ghostly figure who haunts the coastal roads, always accompanied by his hare-familiar or shadow.