Eddy Stevens
Real artists are born as artists. They live with a permanent drive to create, and they do this day after day. They never stop producing and never stop trying to surpass themselves. In this sense, Eddy Stevens is an artist, heart and soul.
He moved from his native country (born in Brasschaat, Belgium, 1965) to the southwest of France with his wife Sophie to live on an old and desolate farm. There he found a timeless atmosphere, imbued with a humanity perfectly suited to the development of his paintings. Like a kind of spiritual philosopher, he explores an unconscious fantasy world. His work is about a unique touching between human and human, person and person, someone and someone else.
In a passionate way he tells us about himself growing and, at the same time, gaining insight into his techniques. He trusts that new concepts present themselves in moments of meditation, and they do. It is as though new works come to find him. He says, “it’s as if it’s not only me who’s inventing the idea, it’s as if I’m looking at my shadow.”
Appreciating the high tradition of corporality and light exemplified by Rembrandt, Titian, Odd Nerdrum, Andrew Wyeth and Lucian Freud, he employs a style that is both modern and timeless. His earlier exhibitions in Holland, Belgium, France and the United States (yes, New Orleans), were rich with color. His new work has evolved toward the monochromatic, using occasional colored details to capture attention, and his painting has reached new levels of clarity and power. Less, in this case, is more.
