Anneke Van Waard

Born in the Netherlands in 1960, Anneke grew up in Haarlem; the town of Frans Hals, a town seeped in culture, art and architecture of the Golden age; a town a stone throw away from Amsterdam, the cultural heart of the Netherlands.

Daily life was infused with culture and art. Constantly surrounded by it, creativity was felt as a normal part of life. It was felt that the creative force was part of your being, of who and what you are, and not so much a part of your doing.

Doing was finding a job that would support you throughout life.



Anneke worked in various office jobs, mainly in the fashion and aviation industry in the Netherlands as well as abroad.

All along, creativity remained part of her daily life with music, drawing, writing, designing and making fashion and also gardening always filling her leisure time.



It wasn’t until she moved to Australia in 1996 which was followed by a big interstate move a few years later, that she let that creativity become her doing as well.

She initially worked in watercolours, painting the flowers from her garden.

This was soon followed by creating portraits of her family and her dogs working in oils and pastels. She constantly studied and is still learning from the modern day masters through their videos and books; learning from her peers via Art forums, studying the old masters, which off course was followed by lots of practice.

Her desire to properly understand the dogs she was painting she also studied dog anatomy.