New book MotherMother, Ada Breedveld from publisher Bekking & Blitz

Ada Breedveld was born in Dordrecht at the start of the hunger winter in 1944. Her parents fled the devastated Rotterdam together with Adas brothers. Like any post-war child, life was hard and hard. Fortunately Ada finds a lot of joy in drawing and painting.

From kindergarten, every moment is seized to experiment with colors and lines. No piece of paper is safe for the creative Ada. After her training she started working but none of her jobs give her the joy and satisfaction she does from drawing and painting. All her free time is therefore devoted to drawing and studying in order to further develop her skills.

Ada experiments with colors, materials and different themes. A magazine explaining the meaning of the word surrealism gives her work a direction towards the so-called free world. The place of the sometimes convulsive realistic could be taken by imaginative, colorful and above all cheerful combinations.

Adas art has developed in such a way that it qualifies for a Visual Artists Scheme. Ada can now do what she likes to do; devote themselves to art. Her career is gaining momentum. She comes into contact with other artists and gallery owners and participates in various exhibitions and wins the public award at the Lijnbaan art center in Rotterdam.

Together with other artists who have a predilection for surrealism and magical realism, she travels to Spain, Germany and France to visit the main museums in Berlin, Paris, Madrid and Barcelona. But also to talk to artists and to visit new galleries. An explosion of drawings and colorful paintings follows.


Inspired by her many travels abroad and encounters with writers, poets and visual artists. Ada is inspired and shaped by artists such as: Marcel Duchamp, Paul Klee, Salvador Dali and Félecien Robs.

In 1980 Ada gets her own studio in a school building where other artists also work. There she became friends with Edward Luyken and his wife. A few years later, together with Edward, Ada decided to move to Amsterdam and take up residence in a factory building where they can live and work. Ada's daughter befriends Edward's children and together they embark on a new adventure.

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