Astrid Bennett Claas was born in Bonn, Germany and lived and worked in the Netherlands for a number of years before moving to the UK in 1993. She started to draw and paint from an early age and has always been artistic in spirit, yet she earned a degree in business studies and economics.

Setting up her own successful business selling engineering products throughout the UK has allowed her to develop her knowledge and further her lifelong interest and passion for painting. Predominantly self-taught she learned through home studies and by attending regular workshops with well known artists.

Astrid has always lived in the country and loves to paint flowers, so when she moved to Ashby Folville in Leicestershire she found many motives on which she could successfully use her own particular style of watercolour painting and also add some of her beloved flowers for effect. Over the years she has developed this technique which makes her village scenes very vibrant and colourful, and this is why she chose "englishvillageartist" as the domain name for her website.

In 2009 she has been working on a series of 13 pictures for a 2010 calendar which will be available for purchase through this site very soon. Proceeds from the sales will go to local Ashby Follville charities, but Astrid also supports good causes further afield by attending events sponsored by many of her business associates.

Astrid lives with her husband Mike on the edge of the village and they can often be seen out with their two dogs. They both like being at home in their garden, but are also keen travellers, and in recent years Astrid has successfully extended her art career into teaching on board cruise liners. She will be participating in a leg of a world cruise in 2010 which will no doubt provide her many motives to bring back to her Sunnybank studio, and for you all to see on line as they are completed.