Jean-Marie Heyligen

1961, Belgium

At the age of 21 Jean-Marie Heyligen came into painting like someone who opens the door to a secret space, without realising what it contains, what it opens in terms of possibilities. It is the studio of the Home Livemont that he makes his own way, with a quiet strength, along the paths of expression.

The female body remains the theme of his paintings, but he tames it, grants it more humanity. In it, he discovers the pleasure of painting, creates a palette of his own, juggles with the shapes and compositions. A style is born.

Even later, he discovers wood. The artist becomes craftsman. In huge trunks he makes thousands of chisel-marks and adds various metals: bottle tops, cartridge caps (we are in hunting country), copper plate. He has switched from the fetish to the totem, the masculine.