There are a lot of influences of course. The most devastating one is Jan Van Eyck. He was a Flemish primitive and, I think, one of the most important painters ever. The perfection of Van Eyck is unparalleled in the world. Already as a painter from the beginning you are traumatized by your own region. Apart from that, one of the painters that I really, really admire is El Greco and you have Velasquez, I mean all the names you can think of. And in Belgium there was one painter who you may not know who was a contemporary of James Ensor, also living on the coast at Ostend, and that is Leon Spilliaert. So those were my main influences in the beginning.