The artist

Hester Van Wijngaarden presents herself neither as a painter or an artist, but as a woman who paints, an expression reflecting two dimensions of life that nourish her.

After studying History of Art in Leiden, Holland for two years, Hester is accepted to the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Utrecht in 1982.

But shortly after life led her to settle in the Gers, France, and it was in this new home that she set out on the road to what her painting is today. She moved towards a figurative painting style and from her first exhibition in Auch, at the age of 25, she began to sell her works. Hester Van Wijngaarden paints portraits, landscapes, some animals. But it is in this place, the Gers, impressed by the vision of bullfighting scenes, that the bull imposes itself on her as a subject.