Born in 1954 in Haarlem, Netherlands, Tjalf Sparnaay currently lives and works in Hilversum, Netherlands. A self-taught artist, Sparnaay is strongly influenced by the work of Vermeer, Rembrandt, Goings, and Bell.

Sparnaay takes the subjects of his oils from everyday reality to create images that he calls Megarealism. Trivial items such as a fried egg, a breakfast, a bag of chips with mayonnaise, a Dutch raw herring with a little flag, a bunch of tulips still wrapped in cellophane play the lead roles in his pictures. Sparnaay takes these items out of the context of their day to day surroundings, enlarging them so the viewer sees their tiniest details. His intention is to “give these objects a soul and a presence”.

“I hope my paintings will allow the viewer to re-experience reality, to re-discover the essence of the thing that has become so ordinary from its DNA to the level of universal structure, in all its beauty. I call it the beauty of the contemporary commonplace.”

Sparnaay exhibits his work often in the Netherlands, the U.S., and in London.  To see more, visit TjalfSparnaay.nl.