Gerbrand van Heerden. Perlemoen Sea Shell. Original oil on canvas, signed . Huge.

After matriculating he began his career as a fine artist by receiving training from his father, fine artist Douw van Heerden. He has also studied observational painting with fine artist Francois Roux.

Douw has a love for the dramatic work of neoclassicist/romantic painters such as Joseph Turner, Jean-Auguste Ingres, Theodore Gericault and Eugene Delacroix. He is also influenced by the still life painting of Edouard Manet, Paul Cezanne, William Heda, Henri Fantin-Latour and Jean-Simeon Chardin. Contemporary British and American painters such as Richard Schmidt, Raymond Leech, Trevor Chamberlain and Jeremy Galton have also been a direct influence.

Douw has two lines of work in which his technique differs: the direct observational Alla-Prima technique and the traditional studio painting technique. Both techniques rely on accurate observation and rendering of tone and form and the relationship between colour and light.

He always strives to improve and develop his style and technique. With each painting he endeavours to establish himself as a traditional classical still-life, landscape and figure painter.