DEBORAH THIJSSEN-PARKINS loves the countryside. She lives in an old farmhouse in Posterholt, a small village not far from the National Park Meinweg in the southern province Limburg. She often accompanies her husband, a hunter. "So I get the chance to study closely all kind of game: wild boar, deer, birds. I admire them each for their own nature. "
Father was born in London. Her mother, from the Dutch town of Heerlen, gave birth on June 8th 1963 to Deborah (Debbie) in the eastern English town of Bury St Edmunds. "My parents lived in several parts of the world. For a while we lived in Singapore. " "

In the end the family settled in The Netherlands. Debbie first joined an art and craft teacher training in Sittard. But after one year she made the transition to the pedagogical academy in Roermond. "I didn’t stop painting and drawing, a hobby I loved from my childhood. Father also painted in his free time. He was self-taught, but as a girl I already admired his work." "

Debbie knew how to deal with watercolor and acrylics. Marcel Verwijlen, lecturer at the academy of arts in Maastricht, teaches her how to use oilpaint. "
She works mostly on canvas and the dimensions of her paintings vary. "I prefer working in large sizes and don’t like painting very realistic. I need a bit of freedom. My plein air paintings are impressionistic. Meanwhile in my studio I paint layer upon layer.” Nature and wildlife in the neighbourhood gives the artist enough inspiration. "I only prefer to paint animals I saw myself.”