Studied art at St. Joost, Breda (NL)

After serving the obligated period in the Dutch army (base Seedorf, Germany), moved to the USA where he found a job as illustrator at Hall Graphics in Miami and ended up forming Mazzarella Baert Graphic Design and Illustration with partner J. Mazzarella in Miami, Florida, which folded after 8 years in the wake of hurricane Andrew.

After working as a freelance designer/ilustrator for a little while in Miami he moved back to where his roots were, taking a job as Art Director with Neckermann, a mail-order company. In 2009 a move to Belgian mail-order company Unigro based in St. Niklaas followed.

Now Mario lives in Sluiskil, a village near Terneuzen with his wife Sabrina and daugters Amelie and Alanah. When he's not working at Unigro or doing illustrations, Mario likes to listen to Progressive Rock (the likes of Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd), read european Comics or Fantasy and Science Fiction books, play badminton, watch soccer or movies, look thru his extensive collection of art and illustration books or work on his iMac which he doesn't only use for work, but also for play.

IMAGENETION: a starting point to find some great artists.
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY ART: more and different from the above.
ILLUSTRATORS: some great illustrators from the past.

FANTASY ART & ILLUSTRATION - ARTISTS

BROM: official site. Always thought his art was Michael Whelan's. I rank him very high as well, yet with a darker mood than Michael Whelan.
ROGER DEAN: official site. One of the first fantasy artists I encountered and the artist that got me hooked on progressive rock through his wonderful "yes" album covers.
KEITH PARKINSON: official site. He's done some great book covers, as well as art for fantasy games, an area I never did get in to, yet I love a lot of the artwork. Unfortunately Keith passed away in 2005. The site is still up though.
MICHAEL WHELAN: official site. Just great art, what's more to say?
BARRY WINDSOR SMITH: official site. Although a comic book artist, famous for his Conan-series his art is related to the pre-raffaelites whom I greatly admire.
MATTIAS NOREN: Progart, very nice CD cover art
DONATO GIANCOLA: Great SF and Fantasy art, saw some originals which, as usual are much nicer than the printed versions (the size of them put the art in scale as well).
DAVID WYATT: Love a lot of his fantasy paintings, does a great deal of the work digitally as well. Interesting, I still don't trust the colors on my screen...
FRANKA: Artist Henk Kuijpers' main character from a wonderfully developed comic book series.