Artists from the Netherlands to show talents at Piney Woods Festival

Three women decided to follow a path of creativity that began growing at a young age. Due to marriage to husbands whose careers wound up at Fort Rucker, this area will benefit from their drawings, art and creative designs next weekend as they show their work at the Piney Woods Arts Festival.
Anouk Gunter was born in Roosendaal, a town in the southwest of the Netherlands.
“I was the youngest of my two siblings and I was a dreamer. I didn’t like school at all. Instead, I loved to draw and liked playing in the streets with my brother and friends,” Gunter said.
Gunter started her artistic pursuits by making children’s art and did a few murals. “That’s when it really started and I discovered the wonderful world of acrylics and canvasses.”
The creative artist will show her works in oils, acrylics and inks at Piney Woods next weekend. Now working in genres of the military and former aviators such as Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindberg and the faces of many current aviators in groups, Gunter’s work is in the Seaside Gallery, in the Ann Rudd Gallery in Ozark and in April, she has a large show at the Troy Museum, entitled “Permission to Land.”
Chantal Durham-Bogers, another Dutch artist, will also be showing her work at the festival. Durham-Bogers, 28, met her American husband in the military; the couple will be in Enterprise until her husband finishes flight school at Fort Rucker.
After taking oil-painting classes following a day job as an accountant, she began painting and now makes a living from painting realistic oil artwork on any subject. Durham-Bogers she works on commission, but also sells her other work.
Realistic paintings of subjects such as large military helicopters in flight against a sunset, a pet dog and a sea crane are among some of her recent works of art.
“Being real is the key,” she said. “I love to paint as if the subject can be touched.”
A husband in the Royal Netherlands Navy now working as an instructor pilot at Fort Rucker brought Manon Van Der Loo to Enterprise and the Piney Woods Festival.
Van Der Loo and her Dutch parents moved to the Netherlands a couple of weeks after she was born in the United Kingdom. Her parents still live there. At Piney Woods, Van Der Loo will be showing her work with Hot Fix rhinestones on T-shirts and other items.
“My mother was a creative person, so I grew up seeing and doing a lot of nice arts and crafts. She also taught me sewing clothes, but what I really like to do is decorating,” she said.
Van Der Loo said her friends in the Netherlands used to call her “The Diva,” so she came up with the name of Diva Wear for her unique clothing creations.
The artist will have key chains made from glass beads or “you can also use them as a decoration on a handbag,” she said. “The main thing I do is the blinging stuff.”
Piney Woods Arts Festival will be Saturday, March 27, and Sunday, March 28, on the track at Enterprise State Community College.