Lotte Klaver
As a child
Lotte was born in a little village in The Netherlands called Winkel. That means 'shop' in Dutch. She has a twin sister and a little brother. She liked to draw already when she was very small. As the years went by she grew older and wanted to leave Winkel to study art in Amsterdam.
As an adult
As the dean at school said it was very hard to make a living with drawing, Lotte decided she had to learn something else as well and chose a teacher degree in art. She loves kids. But a whole class of them can be quite a challenge, it turned out. After getting her diploma in 2003 she soon got her own studio and started working as an illustrator. She still works in Amsterdam and lives there too, in a small old but cosy house with Tom the cat.
As an artist
Lotte has a studio in a former newspaper office building in Amsterdam. She can be lazy at times, but when she is on a roll she likes to keep drawing till late in the evening or even night. Sometimes she draws in her dreams, too. Alongside her publishing work she makes a drawing a day for her drawing blog at www.lotteklaver.nl and performs with the Tekenmachine (drawing machine). Based on personal input - by means of a form with tagwords, picked out or made up by the viewer - the Tekenmachine fabricates beautiful unique drawings in black ink.
Things you didn't know about Lotte Klaver
- Lotte's cat Tom weighs a whopping eight kilo's. He has big bones.
- Her favourite cookies are called 'pepernoten', they are very small spicy Dutch cookies.
- Lotte is only 5'3” tall and used to be the second smallest in her class.
- She has recently got a fringe cut in her hair and is not sure what to think of it yet.
- Lotte's little brother has grown to be a head higher than herself
- She once saved the lives of a hedgehog, a blackbird, a swallow, a mouse and a nest of baby rats.
- Lotte once completed a half marathon together with her father.
- She would love to see a whale some day.
- Lotte is crazy about snorkelling.
- She has a terrible sense of direction and tends to get lost even in her own supermarket.