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Although not of Catholic inclination, Dirk was born in 1955 in a Roman Catholic monastery near Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. His parents were travelling through the area when he suddenly decided to be born somewhat early. The only suitable place to be found at the time was the monastery. The rest is history, so to speak.
The surroundings at his birth might have had something to do with his love for drawing and painting, or maybe he inherited it from his father who also painted and even wrote one story, never to be published. Dirk also wrote stories. A number of his short stories were published in a children’s magazine called “Die Kleinspan” while he was still in high school. He was also the editor and sole journalist of an underground newspaper at his high school, obviously also never publicly published.
Dirk never received any formal training in art. His parents, his mother an English teacher and father a Magistrate, did not think that art could be anything more than an idle pastime and therefore did not encourage his interest in art. The result was that he struggled through high school with subjects such as German, Economics and Maths. He even proceeded to study in Economics, Industrial Psychology and Public Law and eventually graduated with a Masters in Business Administration at the “tender” age of 53. It is then that he decided to do what he had been missing all his life, to paint again. He even started taking art classes and although he still has his day job, his paintings take up most of his spare time.
Dirk currently lives in Melkbosstrand, a little town some 30 km up the West Coast from Cape Town, South Africa. He is married and has two daughters (both married) a son and two grandsons. His son clearly inherited his love for art and has qualified as graphic designer. He also acts as Dirk’s critic and “mentor”, having formally studied in art subjects.
Although Dirk’s production of art pieces is slow due to other responsibilities still claiming too much of his time, his paintings already hang in corporate and private collections across South Africa. His works can also be found in private collections in Germany, Australia and Canada.
Being mostly a classic artist, Dirk prefers to work with oil as medium but also uses acrylics and mixed media for his more neo-impressionistic works. He specialises in classical landscapes, seascapes and still life but also applies the more neo-impressionistic fauvist methods.