Christiane Vleugels
- Born in Belgium (1963)
- Lives and works in Belgium
Exhibitions
- 2013 Lieve Lambrecht Galerie, Deinze, Belgium.
- 2013 Classic Event, Kortrijk, Belgium.
- 2012 Mixed Emotions, Antwerpen, Belgium.
Christiane paints her philosophy of life in every painting she does, and it’s instantly visible. Her zest for life and her unshakable belief that the universe provides are palpable in her paintings, never failing to lift a smile from the viewer.
Originally painting in a romantic style to gain the recognition she craved as an awkward teenager, she soon developed a mature mastery of the styles of the old masters through commissioned paintings, “which paid my bills and honed my skills,” Christiane recalls with a smidge of melancholy and a handful of gratitude.
These days Christiane paints what’s alive and calling in her, whether it’s a sense of wonder about this world or compassion for her models, especially those that lack an articulate voice, such as women who’ve suffered trauma, her widowed father, or sometimes animals.
Christiane paints in oil on board or aluminum panels, preferably of large formats, drawing, according to the mood or theme that may be stirring in her, on her large archive of photographs of models who have posed for her over the years.
An exhibition of works by Boris Vallejo, the Peruvian fantasy and erotica painter and illustrator, and especially his winged amazons riding dragons, gave her an epiphany about her painter’s path: women!
Since then, women—wounded, powerful, glamorous, seductive, pensive—have been an inexhaustible subject matter for Christiane, who portrays them in a hyperrealist style, sometimes with a whiff of magic that draws the viewer further inside the physical or conceptual world of her work.
Her paintings have consoled or encouraged her models, and viewers too, and invited dialogue on themes like ‘Inner Beauty,’ ‘Alive and Kicking’ and ‘The Kiss,’ as they were unfolding in her work.
Christiane’s work is found in private collections across Europe, but there is also plenty that goes around thanks to the limited-edition reproductions of her work through her Raipun Collection.
