My paintings went viral!

And I barely noticed at first

It still feels surreal to write this.

Somewhere between mixing paint, cleaning brushes and staring at a canvas in my studio, two of my paintings quietly made their way into the world… and suddenly reached hundreds of thousands of people.

Without any strategy.
Without planning.
Without me even realizing it at first.

It started with Bold Elegance.

I shared her, closed my laptop and went on with my day. A week later I opened LinkedIn and saw over a hundred connection requests waiting. That moment of confusion
What is happening
Turned into disbelief when I saw the numbers.

Over 105,000 views.

For context: my posts usually reach a few thousand people. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes less. On Instagram she did well too, but this… this was something else entirely.

People didn’t just look.
They felt something.

The reactions were overwhelming. Warm. Thoughtful. Emotional. People wrote about the softness in her posture, the strength in her presence, the quiet confidence she radiates. Exactly what I had put into her while painting.

And then it happened again.

In May, Beautiful Evie
A black and white painting
Quiet
Subtle
Almost shy

Also went viral. Even harder.

111,000 views.

Evie is depicted looking out of a window. As if she’s waiting for someone. Or maybe just lost in a thought. I deliberately left space for interpretation, and people filled it in beautifully.

“She’s looking at her children.”
“I see a woman at peace.”
“She feels safe.”
“She’s smiling at life.”

Everyone saw something different, yet everyone felt the same thing: something soft, something real, something familiar.

And me
I was just standing there in my studio in Deurne. Paint on my hands. Overalls on. Staring at a screen that suddenly said: 111,000 people have seen this.

It sometimes feels like I’m painting on a small island, and then a work suddenly takes flight and travels the world without me even noticing.

What touches me most isn’t the numbers.
As unreal as they are.

It’s that people feel something.
That something lands.

That quiet moment someone has in front of a painting
Even if it’s through a screen.

I’ve sold many paintings by now.
But the number that stays with me is not the sales count.

It’s the stories.

Behind every artwork is a reason
A couple celebrating an anniversary
A memory of someone who is no longer here
A long held dream finally given form

You don’t sell a painting.
You give a feeling a place to live.

Both Bold Elegance and Beautiful Evie reminded me of that in the most unexpected way.

So thank you.
For looking.
For reacting.
For sharing.
For feeling.
For letting my work travel far beyond my studio walls.

I’m still painting quietly.
But knowing it reaches you
That changes everything.