Hans (1987) studied figure painting at the academies of Ghent and Antwerp. For him is painting a way to escape daily routines, rigid structures, and the past.

He admires painters like Alice Neel, Roger Raveel, and David Hockney. He sketches frequently in his notebook and creates a series of paintings from sessions with models he invites into his atelier. Over time, a conversation emerges between the model and the painter through the canvas.

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Hans enjoys working with pastel colors and searches for the moment when a line becomes a shape. He experiments with different ways of forming lines and shapes. This process leads to large abstract paintings reminiscent of the works of abstract painters like Cy Twombly.

 

In Layers of Elegance, this communication continues, now with Sofie Darche as a model.

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the intention of this triptych was to depict femininity, but after the first painting Hans was taken in a different direction. Picturing Sofie as a woman was still the goal, but the way he would do it organically took a different direction. You can clearly see this in the evolution of the works.