Frans is a Dutch born artist now living in the UK. His work has been much influenced by both Picasso and Rembrandt and he has seriously tried to paint like both, finding no contradiction in this. “I am a qualified teacher of art history so it is all in me and gets used.” His work is of people doing things, feeling things, worrying about things. His work is thought provoking – as Frans puts it – “I need to have my mind engaged”. He is trying always to get inside his subjects, to convey an impression of the human psyche. “It is the most difficult job I have ever done”, says Frans, “but also the most rewarding”.

“I am a painter above all. I love to look at paintings and drawings; I get a lot out of it. You can look at the detail of a picture and marvel at what the artist has achieved by a single brush stroke. That is it, the satisfaction, when you find the right stroke and it just lights up the whole picture”. He says a painting is successful if it has a living character, an independent life of its own.

Half of Frans work is in oils and the other half is the production of limited edition fine art prints in his own mix of wood cut and etching – a medium which can give an amazingly 3D impression. Surprisingly for such a modern painter he finds many of his ideas in Shakespeare, Chaucer and the Bible.