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Greet Toxopeus (born 1941, Bogor, Java, Indonesia) studied fine arts at the academy of Arts in Enschede, The Netherlands. After finishing her studies in 1964 she and her former husband moved to South Africa, and this country greatly influenced her artistic development. Greet became a member of a multi-racial artist group, and participated in collective exhibitions in the group’s own Artists Gallery. This is where her first successful exhibition took place. The National Gallery Museum in Kaapstad bought one of her paintings at one of these exhibitions in 1970 (Metamorphose / see picture). 

Greet and her family returned to the Netherlands in 1975 due to the political situation in South Africa. She relocated to Renkum and was appointed as a draw and paint instructor at Creative Center ’t Venster in Wageningen, and at ‘Cultura’ in Ede.

Indonesia, the country where she was born, kept calling her and in 1989 she made a large trip through Java where she spent her early years interned during the war.She has no conscious memories of this period, but seeing the landscape gave her a sense of belonging. At this point thelandscape became her inspiration.

Fascinating in her colorful landscapes is the presence of both space and intimacy.
Her clear and suggestive landscapes are convincing of a growing expressiveness which can be seen as the result of long and intense studies. Greet considers the painters Kandinsky, Hodler (his mountain scapes), de Ploeg (Groningen, the Netherlands), and other painters of expressionism as her contemporaries.

The other works of Greet Toxopeus consist mostly of nature paintings. She paints the physical world in a way that adds the experience of a metaphysical element. The timeless being of stars, the evolution of life, the secret of the landscape, the short life span of insects, and the mystery of the smallest parts of things. These thoughts are also incorporated in the music of the French composer Olivier Messiaen, a great source of inspiration to Greet.