Karel lives and works in Sydney, NSW Australia. Born in Belgium of mixed heritage that includes Flemish, Dutch and French. Migrated to Australia in 2000. From a young age Karel admired the Dutch masters, in particular Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer. As a teenager Karel developed a great appreciation for Anton Heyboer, a Dutch painter and printmaker. He also intensively studied the work of Neue Wilde (New Wild Ones) in particular Martin Kippenberger, a German artist known for his extremely prolific output in a wide range of styles and media. Another artist of influence is Albert Oehlen, also related to the Neue Wilde movement.
Karel is mainly a figurative painter. In recent years landscape works were added to his body of work. Karel uses mixed media techniques and is particularly fond of synthetic polymer paints, charcoal, pencil, oil pastels and graphic marker. Karel's work can best be described as neo-expressionism with hints of post-painterly abstraction. Styles shift, partly because of a lack of patience. Karel also produces minimalistic and pure abstraction paintings, Karel's work is never consistent to one specific theme. Themes are at times naughty, usually not. Sometimes political, usually not. Layers of colour, build up harmoniously with charcoal and pencil figures, sometimes mixed with written words. Pencil drawings and colouring are at times detailed, at times rough and/or primitive.