A visual artist I studied the Beaux Arts and Theater in Amsterdam, although essentially an autodidact, I was influenced by the COBRA, notably by Corneille. I was a drama teacher for years before dedicating exclusively to visual arts. At my website http://www.mayke-sassen.com and through the pages and posts of ArtSeaProvence one can see the very eclectic nature of my work influenced by these different life experiences, the different worlds in which I have lived and expressed my art.

I call my style “Realistic” since I, as the observer, change the actual world around me, the world and I interact, I reveal a reality that is behind visible things.

Through an independence of mind and eye, I see my work providing an expression with innocent sophistication, simplification,

often a modern expressionistic style with storytelling line.

Some have described my work as belonging to the naïve style; true in the sense that I try to simplify scenes and things in an unconventional, unsophisticated
manner; inspired by medieval painters and sculptors as well as primitive art.

Before coming back to this region of Provence (see my works on Port Grimaud) I had a “living gallery” with my husband, a“Hotel de Charme”   in the Luberon region of Provence.

The flow and appreciation of the Auberge’ guests and the insatiable appetite of some for my work has reconciled my timidity from the public eye.

 

 

 

 

Visit the inn’s website I designed in illustrative form and the artwork in and about the rooms

 

it’s another dimension to my portfolio http://www.auberge-presbytere.com.

 

Beyond the private collections for the most part in Europe world to include Imperial College in London, in California and in Florida

I have works in many corners of the world such as the University of Louvain in