My artistic journey
Every painting has a story. But before every painting, there was a journey.
People often ask me when I became an artist, but the truth is that I never really decided to become one. My art grew quietly, almost unnoticed, somewhere between everyday life, long working days, and the simple need to create something that brought me peace.
For more than twenty-three years I worked as a dental hygienist, and for fifteen of those years I had my own practice. I loved helping people and building a place where they felt welcome and cared for, but after busy days filled with appointments, conversations, and responsibility, I needed something that allowed my mind to slow down. That is when I began painting dots.
At first, it was nothing more than a hobby. I did not think about selling paintings, building a website, or calling myself an artist. I simply enjoyed the quiet rhythm of placing one tiny dot after another. One dot became ten, ten became hundreds, and slowly a painting would appear. There was something deeply calming about that process, as if every dot helped me breathe a little deeper.
Looking back now, I realize that this was where my artistic journey truly began. Not with a big plan or a dream of exhibitions, but with one small dot and the peaceful feeling it gave me.
My first gallery was my waiting room
As the number of paintings slowly grew, I eventually ran out of space at home. Instead of storing them away, I decided to hang them on the walls of my dental hygiene practice.
It seemed like the perfect place to brighten the waiting room, but I never imagined what would happen next.
While patients waited for their appointments, they would quietly wander from one painting to another, often standing up to take a closer look at the thousands of tiny hand-painted dots. Many told me that every time they looked, they discovered something new hidden within the patterns. Before long, our conversations began to change. We would still talk about dental care, of course, but more and more often people wanted to know about the paintings surrounding them.
"Did you really paint these yourself?"
"How long does something like this take?"
"Are they for sale?"
To my surprise, many of the paintings found new homes with the very people who had first admired them while waiting for their appointment.
Looking back, I realize that my first gallery was never a gallery at all. It was the waiting room of my dental hygiene practice, where people unexpectedly discovered another side of me.
It still makes me smile that so many visitors came to see me as their dental hygienist and left knowing me as an artist.
A family dream
Like so many people around the world, our lives suddenly changed during the Covid pandemic. For the first time in my career, my dental hygiene practice had to close its doors for six weeks. It felt strange. After years of busy days filled with patients, my agenda was suddenly empty, and life became unexpectedly quiet.
Around that same time, my son Rajesh was looking for an internship as part of his international business studies. During one of our many conversations, we started talking about my paintings. Until then, they had simply been a hobby, something I loved doing in the evenings and weekends without ever imagining that they could become anything more.
Together we began asking ourselves a simple question: What if we gave my artwork a chance to grow?
That one conversation became the beginning of an entirely new adventure.
Rajesh started photographing my paintings, helping to build a website, and thinking about how we could present my artwork professionally. His internship quickly became much more than a university project. It became something we were building together, combining my creativity with his fresh ideas, enthusiasm, and business knowledge.
It was during those years that I realized that The World of Dots was never created overnight. It grew slowly, just like my paintings do, one small step at a time. It all began with a conversation between a mother and her son, who both believed that a simple hobby might just become something special.
Learning, growing and finding my own style
When I first discovered dot painting, I worked on glossy black cardboard. I loved the dramatic contrast between the deep black background and the vibrant colors that slowly came to life with every carefully placed dot. Those early paintings were all about discovering the technique, experimenting with patterns, and simply enjoying the creative process.
As my passion for painting continued to grow, so did my ambitions. During the Covid pandemic, when I suddenly found myself with more time to paint, I wanted to create artworks that felt even more professional. I started working on waterproof MDF panels, carefully finishing every painting with a beautiful custom-made frame. The results were exactly what I had hoped for. Each artwork looked elegant and ready to hang in a gallery or someone's home.
However, creating art this way also came with a challenge. The high-quality panels combined with professional framing made every painting expensive to produce long before it ever found a new home. I realized that if I wanted to continue growing as an artist, I needed to find a more practical approach without compromising the quality of my work.
That was when I discovered stretched 3D canvases.
They gave my paintings a clean, contemporary appearance while eliminating the need for expensive frames. It allowed me to create larger artworks, gave collectors the freedom to hang them immediately, and most importantly, enabled me to keep painting without every new piece becoming significantly more expensive to produce.
What I did not know then, is that every change in materials reflected a new chapter in my artistic journey. The surface beneath my brush evolved as my life evolved, but one thing has remained the same.
Every painting still begins with a single dot.
Every single dot is still painted by hand, one after another, with patience, care, and complete attention to detail. No shortcuts. No printed patterns. Just thousands of carefully placed dots that slowly grow into a story.
When the ocean became my studio
In July 2022, another lifelong dream finally became reality. My husband Jeroen and I sold almost everything we owned, moved aboard our sailboat My Motu, and set sail to explore the world. We knew we were about to begin the greatest adventure of our lives, but at that moment I had no idea that this new lifestyle would also have such a profound influence on my art.
Until then, painting had always been something I did after work or during quiet moments at home. Suddenly, every new day began in a different place. One morning we would wake up anchored inside a crystal-clear lagoon, the next surrounded by tiny tropical islands where the only sounds were the wind, the waves, and the birds. Instead of searching for inspiration, I found myself living in the middle of it.
As we sailed from one destination to the next, I started looking at nature differently. I no longer only admired the colours of the ocean or the beauty of a tropical island. I became fascinated by the hidden patterns that seemed to appear everywhere. The perfect symmetry of a seashell, the intricate structures of coral, the flowing movement of the waves and the remarkable geometry woven throughout the natural world revealed themselves in ways I had never noticed before.
Rather than changing my artistic style completely, these discoveries enriched it. The mandalas that had always formed the foundation of my work gradually merged with the organic geometry I encountered every day while exploring the Pacific. Combining those two worlds has become one of the things I enjoy most as an artist. My paintings are not meant to recreate what I see, but to capture the harmony, rhythm, and balance that nature quietly reveals to those who take the time to look closely.
Looking back, I realize that the ocean did much more than inspire new paintings. It changed the way I observe the world. It taught me to slow down, to notice the extraordinary beauty hidden in the smallest details, and to trust the creative process, just as I trust every new journey we begin aboard My Motu.
Every island leaves behind a memory.
Every anchorage sparks a new idea.
And every painting carries a little piece of the journey that inspired it.
That is the moment when I realised that the ocean had become much more than the place where we lived.
It had become my studio.
Painting across the Pacific
As our journey continued across the Pacific, painting gradually became a natural part of life aboard My Motu. Whenever we found ourselves safely anchored in a quiet bay or a crystal-clear lagoon, I would transform our saloon into my little floating studio. Some paintings were completed in just a few days, while others traveled with me from one island to the next before the final dot was carefully placed.
French Polynesia became one of the most inspiring chapters of my artistic journey. The breathtaking atolls of the Tuamotus, with their endless shades of blue, pristine lagoons, and extraordinary underwater world, left a lasting impression on me. Life seemed to move at a gentler pace there, allowing me to fully immerse myself in the creative process. Every day brought new colors, new patterns, and new details that quietly found their way into my artwork.
It was also during this time that my paintings began their own journey.
Fellow sailors regularly visited My Motu, and many of them became fascinated by the artwork hanging inside our floating home. Conversations often started with sailing but somehow ended with art. People would ask about my inspiration, my technique, and how long it took to complete a painting. To my surprise, several of those visitors decided they wanted to take one home. Before long, my paintings were traveling across the Pacific aboard other yachts, eventually finding their place in homes around the world.
Not every painting I created was sold. Some became heartfelt gifts for friends we met along the way, small reminders of shared anchorages, unforgettable adventures, and friendships that crossed oceans. Looking back, I sometimes wish I had photographed every painting before saying goodbye, but perhaps that is also part of their story. Those paintings now belong to the memories of the people who received them, just as the memories belong to me.
As we continued sailing into Fiji, another special chapter unfolded. Although I had already created commissioned paintings while living in the Netherlands, it felt almost surreal to receive requests from people back home while we were anchored thousands of miles away in the South Pacific. Knowing that a painting was taking shape aboard My Motu, surrounded by turquoise waters and palm-fringed islands, before eventually hanging in a living room in the Netherlands, made the world suddenly feel small.
Delivering those paintings became an adventure in itself. One of our visitors joined us in Fiji and kindly offered to take the finished artworks back to the Netherlands in his luggage, personally delivering them to their new owners. It was one of those beautiful moments that reminded me that art has a remarkable way of connecting people, no matter how many oceans lie between them.
Today, I sometimes wonder where all those early paintings are. Some are probably still sailing the world aboard yachts, while others hang quietly in homes where they bring a daily reminder of a place, a journey, or a dream. I may not know exactly where every painting ended up, but I love the thought that each one continues its own journey long after it has left my hands.
A floating studio
Living aboard My Motu has taught me that creativity is not only about inspiration, but also about adapting. Unlike a traditional artist's studio, space aboard a sailboat is limited. Every locker, cupboard, and storage compartment has a purpose, leaving very little room for storing large collections of finished paintings.
When I started sailing, I continued working on stretched canvases, just as I had done back home. It did not take long to realize that although they looked beautiful, they also occupied valuable space on board. I simply could not keep dozens of finished paintings safely stored while crossing oceans.
That challenge encouraged me to rethink the way I worked, and over time I made the transition to high-quality unstretched canvas. It turned out to be the perfect solution. Once a painting is finished, it can be carefully rolled, protected inside a sturdy tube, and safely stored until it begins its journey to its new home. Not only does this allow me to continue creating wherever we are anchored, but it also makes shipping original artwork to collectors around the world much easier.
Every painting is still created using the same patience, attention to detail, and professional artist-quality materials as before. I work with Permacrylik Glow in the Dark, Golden Fluid Acrylics, and Matisse Fluid Acrylics, carefully building each artwork one hand-painted dot at a time. The only thing that has changed is the canvas beneath my brush.
Looking around our floating home today, it still amazes me that this small space has become my studio. Some of my paintings have been inspired by the peaceful lagoons of French Polynesia, others by the vibrant reefs of Fiji or the endless horizon of the Pacific Ocean. They all begin in the same place, aboard My Motu, before setting off on their own journey to collectors around the world.
Creating art at sea has taught me that sometimes the greatest limitations become the greatest opportunities. Instead of adapting my dreams to fit my circumstances, I learned to adapt my art to fit the life I had always dreamed of.
A new chapter
When we first set sail, life itself became the greatest adventure. Crossing oceans, discovering remote islands and embracing an entirely different way of living naturally took priority.
Although I continued painting whenever inspiration struck, I spent far less time behind my computer. My website slowly became outdated; many paintings were never photographed, and countless stories remained untold.
Looking back, I do not regret that for a single moment.
Those years gave me something far more valuable than a perfectly updated website. They gave me experiences that continue to inspire every painting I create today.
Recently, I felt the desire to pick up my brushes more often again. Painting has once again become part of my daily life, and with it came the motivation to finally give The World of Dots the attention it had quietly been waiting for.
This website is no longer simply a place to display my artwork.
It has become a place where my paintings, our travels and the stories behind them come together.