Marjolein Witteman immigrated with her parents and sister from the Netherlands in 1978. Her interest in watercolours was motivated during her youth by seeing the kitchen table and other tables in the house perpetually covered by paper, paints and paintbrushes, as her mother Nel and sister Annette are also artists.

Moving to Canada at age eight was a great adventure and a good change from densely populated Netherlands. But although proud to be Canadian, Marjolein continued throughout her youth to be drawn to Europe. After graduating from highschool in Penticton and again after graduating from university, Marjolein lived, schooled and worked in France, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Finland in 1987, 1992 and 1993-4. Her attraction to European architecture kept her artistic focus on the romantic waterways, medieval villages and castles, cobblestone alleyways, old stone city walls, courtyards, and hazy harbours. Her watercolours are hanging in numerous art collections throughout Canada and Europe. Marjolein is also once again attending the University of British Columbia to become a french immersion program elementary school teacher in the Central Okanagan area.

Although in the past her focus has been on Europe, in her studio Marjolein is currently continuing on a series of paintings featuring the Okanagan Valley landscape; wild and cultured, a new approach for her in acrylics on canvas and wood panel. She also has a series in the planning stages regarding the emotional attachment we have to trees.