He received his first training with a Brussels goldsmith. From 1946 to 1950 he received his artistic training in metal and sculpture at the leading École nationale supérieure des arts visuels (ENSAV), formerly the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et des Arts Decoratifs (ENSAAD – la Cambre) in the former Abbey Ter Kameren on the south side of Brussels, where he received training from Oscar Jespers between 1946 and 1947. He also attends evening classes in industrial drawing and from 1947 he also takes classes in printed matter at the “School of Arts and Crafts” in Brussels.
It was introduced by Strebelle in 1949 in the Marais workshop in Brussels. In 1950 he met Pierre Alechinsky and was introduced by him to the other Cobra members,. He participated with them in various CoBrA exhibitions, such as the “Second International Exhibition of Experimental Art (COBRA) in the Palais de Beaux-Arts in Liège in 1951. He first establishes himself as a blacksmith and makes custom forging and decorative ironwork to order. In 1956 he broke through as an artist with an individual exhibition at the Galerie Taptoe in Brussels, where he received the “Prix de la Critique”. He received the “Young Belgian Sculpture” Prize in 1957. It was not until 1958, when the CoBrA had long since fallen apart, that he found his own artistic direction. He works with Pierre Alechinsky in his summer workshop in Sauvagemont (Brabant Wallon) in the period 1958-1959 and participates with him in various exhibitions. In this period he also gets to know the Danish Børge Birch. This is the holder of the important Galerie Birch in Copenhagen. In 1959 he received a scholarship from the Belgian State and from then on went to work in the Paris area and later in a few other places in France, such as Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. In 1960 he worked with his friend Pierre Alechinsky in Bosse (Oise). Encouraged by him, he started drawing in 1962 and gave his own exhibition in the Lefebre Gallery in New York that same year, with the introductory text written by another CoBrA member Christian Dotremont.