NEWS

The artist RIA DE HENAU works on series with various themes, each time exploring the broadest possible vision that finds expression in her paintings. 
More and more, “human figures” appear, which the artist places in different contexts in a very personal vision and perception. 
Focusing on the aspect of a universal themes, she presents stories viewed from a variety of angles.
Her inspiration for those projects came from study and research, observation and perception, on themes that has influenced and moved every individual throughout the ages.

RIA DE HENAU has for several years been working on what is intended to be “some new major projects”.

NEW PROJECTS ARE IN THE MAKE 


WATER , as universal and more than ever a topical theme.
 
Recently a series of oil paintings in the “water series” was launched  + a book = over 30 paintings with texts by an expert from the water group and a fascinating article by the art critic LUCIEN RAMA of UNESCO.

Departing from Antarctica deep into the desert, this artist depicts the experience of water in over 30 canvases.


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FOREWORD
Water, a primal force
 
No other substance is so ubiquitous and essential. It’s the foundation of life on which everything else is built. As a hydrogen compound
it connects the soil and the air, animals, humans, plants and everything in our surroundings. In the course of a human life water is simply
a drink, a solvent to wash off dirt, a means of moving around and a way of cooling off or having fun. But on a geological time-scale water
has divine powers, powered by the sun and a messenger of time. Water is our sun on earth. Water creates things and breaks them down.
Water determines where livings things move, where they go and stay, and also the boundaries of our creativity. Water nourishes the seas
with minerals. Water makes places accessible, creates valleys and gives rise to civilisations. As ice and glaciers, water forms barriers, it
also floods land, drowns cities, sweeps things away, forms mountain ranges and creates and disperses deserts. Water is stronger than steel and
it smashes rocks. Water regulates the temperature of our planet, determines the sea level and creates our seasons. Water is unique.
Vapour, ice and liquid all in one place make up a unique trinity that forms on our planet. Our deepest fibres and molecules flow with water,
our DNA swims in it, we see through it, we feel, breathe and sweat with it. And yet we barely notice it. We hardly give it a thought.
What if there were no steam, ice or water? The planet would be uninhabitable. We do not have to think about this, because there would
be nothing to think about, nothing to dream of. If we are unique, it is because water makes us possible.
 
HAN VERVAEREN
Optimaal Drinkwater Programme Director
R&D Department, Innovation Division
De Watergroep
 

 
Like a drop of water, one day you will be a pearl
Lucien Rama
 
The work of Ria de Henau, indisputably rooted in hyperrealism, soon gained the admiration and support of art critics, which has enabled
her to exhibit around the world.
Resulting from an active process of reflection and execution that sometimes lasts months, her works often invite us to feel the sound
and freshness of water, to make contact with the stones and the turbulence of the waves.
The abundance of detail gives us a reassuring sense of boundlessness.
As an ode to nature, a salute to eternity and harmony, her art takes us on a journey, but also points out how vulnerable our planet is.
In such characteristic themes as the sea, this Ghent artist questions our constantly changing world. She laments that “we too often
forget nature”.
To her, water is more than a heavenly reflection.
The painting of water effects at first seems extremely simple; it is considered a subject that is easy to reproduce.
Water is a dominant theme in all art. In myths it is a source of life and a universal symbol of abundance and fertility. From Greek philosophy
to Impressionist painting, water has been a life-giving source for every artistic imagination.
 
The theme of ‘water’ has always appeared to be extraordinarily contemporary throughout art history, for example in photography.
It invites us to reflect on the ecological, scientific and philosophical dimensions of water.
In her latest series relating to water, Ria de Henau brings about a different sort of connection for all our senses. Painting to her signifies
above all a manifestation of energy. She shows us that the drops of water, the bubbles and their reflections all keep to the laws of geometry.
With perfect realism, her painting summons up a sense of weightlessness as if we had dipped our heads under water.
Why depict the transparency and slow blurring of water?
Why emphasise the malleability, the fluidity and the transparency of water in its solid form as ice, its foam, its capacity to reflect nature
when calm, its turbulence and waves in a rough sea?
For one single reason: water is the revelation of life. And is it not the artist’s role to make us see what is random and fragile?
Water is in essence musical, whether it produces the gentle crystalline sounds of a babbling brook or the mighty thunder of an
immense waterfall.
It is thus no surprise that this artist, a fan of Claude Debussy, is sensitive to this natural element.
During her art studies, Ria thoroughly explored the techniques of the old masters. The more familiar she became with their way of working,
the more she came to the surprising conclusion that an artwork is always the result of an inner journey.
As she says, “We are the children of our times and an endless motion”.
Her fascination with Buddhism and other sources of inspiration explains her sensitivity to contemplation, meditation and creation.
Her works are built up painstakingly layer by layer. She finds this approach “meditative and restful”. In her quest for the essence of
the soul, she presents numerous themes, powerfully and full of inspiration, all expressed with a delicate refinement and eye for detail.
 
Hubert Reeves tells us that “on a cosmic scale, water is rarer than gold”.
Ria’s work is informed by those artists for whom water is a mirror, an expression of endless movement, illusion, excitement, the voicing
of feelings.
But her fascination with water enabled her to find a means of expression for the profound experience of ‘feeling’ and to give shape
​to new works with an intense richness of colour and shimmering light.
Being close to and in love with nature, this artist has her own message for her contemporaries: “What sort of world do we want?”
The suggestion this series of works makes is: let us reconnect with nature, because, like the drop of water, one day we shall be pearls.
 
LUCIEN RAMA©
Art critic with IAA / UNESCO
January 2022