Born in Venlo, in The Netherlands, in 1954, Dick Van Heerde began painting in oil on canvas at the age of ten. After school, he began to learn the art of restoring paintings dating from the seventeenth century. He completed his apprenticeship in three and a half years, after which he worked for several years as a self-employed restorer of paintings.
Studying the techniques used by the old Masters began to heavily influence his style of painting. Before launching into his own career as a professional artist, he worked for some time as a laboratory assistant for a paint manufacturer and learned the finer chemistry of colour pigments and paints. To begin with, his paintings were typical of the surrealistic style. However, he soon decided to specialise in wildlife, still-life and landscape scenes, and today, Dick Van Heerde particularly enjoys painting European landscapes, although he is predominantly a wildlife artist.
In 1989, he made his first trip to Tanzania, where he developed a passion for painting the magnificent scenery and wildlife. Dick Van Heerde has since travelled extensively around Kenya, painting and sketching. Wildlife and landscapes have always been the main source of inspiration for his unique works, which have been exhibited at galleries in Holland and Germany. During the autumn of 1997, Dick Van Heerde's work was featured in a major wildlife exhibition at the Tryon and Swann Gallery, in London.
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