Born in 1954 in Haarlem, Netherlands, Tjalf Sparnaay currently lives and works in Hilversum, Netherlands. A self-taught artist, Sparnaay is strongly influenced by the work of Vermeer, Rembrandt, Goings, and Bell.

Sparnaay takes the subjects of his oils from everyday reality to create images that he calls Megarealism. Trivial items such as a fried egg, a breakfast, a bag of chips with mayonnaise, a Dutch raw herring with a little flag, a bunch of tulips still wrapped in cellophane play the lead roles in his pictures. Sparnaay takes these items out of the context of their day to day surroundings, enlarging them so the viewer sees their tiniest details. His intention is to “give these objects a soul and a presence”.