Memory of my father

Beatrijs Sterk

On the 26th of February my father had his first exhibition and I was born the night before.

As a child I remember he was "trade hopping" from painting to ceramics and experimenting with dying with vegetal material.

At a very young age I was put beside the privet hedge with a small pair of scissors around my neck to trim the leaves. These leaves were added to a rusty nail and this made nice green wool in a lovely yet filthy color.

When I was about 4 or 5 years old, I had to pose for a portrait, in the large studio in our first farm house at the Hereweg in Schoorl. It is an oil- painting, not very good but typical for the atmosphere of those days.

At the time my father made glass leaded windows. I was allowed to join him during a commission, where we went on the motorbike. At the time it seemed to me like a long trip.
sketches

About the lessons my father gave I remember especially the teaching to adults in the "Zwarte Schuur" at the adult-education college In Bergen. I accompanied him once and I loved it. A group of men was working on a miniature landscape with the old Bergen train (by the name of Bello) in it.