My name is Maria van Bruggen - and you may seen my name "Elfies" as my art name :) I am 34 years old and am a full-time self-employed fantasy artist.

Lets say art being a huge part of my life and my biggest inspiration daily. I can say that everything around me feels very inspiring. Face of the laughing child sometimes can bring up a beautiful painting. I mostly use watercolors, acrylics, pencils and oil. I find watercolors most comforting media for me though as they are something as gentle as your soul. You can visit my website to see more of my work.

I mostly busy during the year with different custom commissions as well I also sell some of the more simple paintings and prints in my ebay shop here - http://stores.ebay.com/ You can see my name on many websites through the interenet and I am glad to know that my works making many people happy all around the world.

I am preparing one of my big book projects for the next year and some of my art will be feautured in Fantasy art calendar 2004.

I can't say I have specifical artists influences as every time I look around I find more and more most talented people around me :) THANK YOU FOR YOUR INSPIRATION!

I live with my husband Etienne, my two kids Melody and Daniel in beautiful small and very green town. We are happily sharing our place with many pets and I enjoy every moment of my life

I am daily updating my Live Journal with my newest paintings/ sketches/life stories, so you are more than welcome to visit and read it here - http://www.livejournal.com/users/elfies/

YES I do accept a commissions for custom paintings that sometimes can be wonderful as a present for somebody you love or simply for yourself :) Please email me for details to info@elfies-world.com and I'll be happy to be back to you with my policies and price list. Please note that waiting time for comission to be done can be up to 2-3 weeks (because of my busy sheldure) so if you are planning it as a present for specifical holiday/birthday - please contact me before!

I am glad you took your time to visit my galery - I hope it brought you little part of my fantasy world :).

Please note that all of my artwork is copyrighted, and I do not allow ANY use of my images without express permission. I apologize in advance for any distraction caused by the copyright watermarks, but unfortunately not everybody is kind enough to respect my copyrights. Thank you for looking!

FAERY WISHES :)