I started my visual artistic work in 1989 when I was abroad in Minneapolis, USA. Afterwards, I studied visual art at the Brussels Royal Academy of Arts and the Academy of Ixelles. In addition to painting, I'm a police officer in Brussels and this direct contact with people from all walks of life is a constant source of inspiration for my painting. Since 1999 I have been delighted presenting my wor
ks widely through Europe, the United States and recently in Japan. Strengthened by the experience from my years of research in style, training and artistic encounters, I believe that I have found my own unique painting signature. My style, at the same time vivid and soft, shocks, but somehow appeals, witnesses and makes the human soul's chords vibrate. Image born on canvas...
Ever since the beginning of my artistic work I've been willing to express the word « Humanity ». I find this « Humanity » for instance on human faces and that's the main reason why most of my works are portraits, all treated in expressionist manner. When painting, I let images with strong expressions inspire me. A picture has to be moving me and has to tell a story. I use these pictures as a visual base, but without intending to make a realistic work of it. On the contrary, it is the emotion evoked by the picture that I want to transfer on canvas. Colours, expressions, contrast and shapes are therefore somehow exaggerated. The picture functions more as a source which is only subject to interpretation through my emotions. Since 2006 I'm working on what I believe to be a strong painting project. Painting 77 portraits of women, « Mothers of humanity », and emphasizing the traces of life on their faces. In a certain sense a mother has carried humanity within her ; she has suffered while giving birth. Often she becomes an impotent witness of mankind. As to me there's a source of truth in this suffering, it's like when all masks fall down ...
Eric ROBIN