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; I believe that, through stories, we make sense of the world, and we connect with one another.
In the year 2000 I moved to Lancashire and began to create sculptures in response to its history, landscape, and folklore. I placed these sculptures in the spaces they most resonate, in the landscape, parks and towns. I turned to working 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 into the elements and is a treasured landmark for 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 appreciated by families and hikers on the climb up to Darwen Tower.
I examined the subject of familiars in “Dandy”, imagining the familiar spirit of James Device – one of the Pendle Witches - as a large wolf-like black dog. Sculpted in steel and 2 metres tall, it was installed in Clitheroe in May 2024, a new landmark for the town centre following a successful crowdfund campaign.
Sir Hare, at more than 3.5 m. in corten steel, is my largest piece thus far. It stood in Liverpool’s 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 a priority species of local concern. I am fascinated by 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. Several Lancashire sources give us accounts of supernatural hares which shape-shift, speak to us 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 Morecambe Bay. It tells us of encounters with a Boggart, a ghostly figure who haunts the coastal roads, always accompanied by his hare-familiar.
