<p>John van der Sterren was born in Sukabumi, West Java, in 1938.<br />As an artist, his first ambition was to become a musician but he found a keen interest in working in the advertising industry. <br />The success of his first solo exhibition in 1993, made him decide to leave the advertising world and devote his efforts to his painting. Since then he has traveled extensively around Asia &amp; Europe making his charcoal sketches and oil painting of landscapes.</p>