Isabelle Scheltjens

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Full Biography

 

Distance creates beauty

Isabelle Scheltjens has put an original and contemporary touch on classical pointillism. She developed a new way of portrait making, whereby thousands of pieces of glass in specific patterns optically form an image. Pointillists used small, distinct dots of pure colour on their canvases, placed in close proximity so that they would blur into new colours. Isabelle applies a similar technique, using layers of coloured glass instead of paint. She immersed herself in the understanding of colour and creates her portraits with maniacal intensity – featuring intricate detail, lighting and shadows.

The eye of the observer

Up close we view an abstract image, seemingly unfinished – a captivating combination of bright colours. When viewed at a distance, our eyes fuse the individual pieces of glass into one solid portrait. The time-consuming and laborious technique is the antithesis to the frantic pace of life in a ‘disposable’ society.

Glass, a contradictory material

Isabelle uses glass in a masterly way, as does her husband and glass artist/artisan Dirk Neefs. Isabelle’s technique arises from Dirk’s passion for glass, which inspired her to explore the versatile material as an artistic medium. Glass unites several contrasting properties – resisting and fragile, transparent and opaque, light and heavy – making it perfect for expressing the ambiguous relationship between distance and proximity.

Keeping up appearances

Everything looks better from a distance than up close. Isabelle’s portraits require the participation of the viewer, as they change depending on the viewing position. Her art gives shape to the disparity between what something appears to be and what something is. The fragility of glass represents the transience of beauty.

The poetry of dots

Although Isabelle’s modern-day pointillism requires technical craftsmanship, technique is merely a means to an end. The seemingly random forms and colours on the surface of the canvas come together to form a distinct, expressive, tactile image – pointillism reinvented and re-contextualized.

About Isabelle

Isabelle Scheltjens had been interested in art since she was young. She studied at SISA, the Antwerp City Institute for Decorative Arts and Crafts. The magnificent glass design of her husband Dirk Neefs inspired Isabelle to work with the same material. It took years of intense practicing and juxtaposing countless of pieces of coloured glass to refine her method and truly master the colour theory. She developed a unique glass-fusing technique, whereby pieces of glass in different colours, sizes and textures are melted together at approximately 800°C. The colourful pieces of glass are like the dots of paint used by the pointillists: forming an abstract image up close, yet a dramatic and precise portrait from a distance.

Isabelle achieves striking optical effects with her technique: she captures the dance of light and colour in a way that a photograph transforms it into a black & white or sometimes a colourful portrait – the fascinating result of a process that relies on the perceptive ability of the eye and mind of the viewer.

Exhibitions

2018

  • The Boutique Gallery, Cape Town-Franschhoek – South Afrika
  • Canfin Gallery, New York – USA
  • Modus Gallery, Paris – France
  • Ransom ART, London – UK
  • Galerie Bartoux, Mégève – France
  • Galerie Bartoux, New Bond Street, London – UK
  • Okker Art Gallery, Amsterdam – The Netherlands
  • Modus Gallery, Paris – France, solo show
  • Galerie Paul Janssen, Saint Tropez – France
  • Galerie Bartoux, Avenue Matignon, Paris, – France
  • Galerie Bartoux, Cannes, Croisette – France
  • Galerie Bartoux, Saint-Paul-de-Vence – France
  • The Boutique Gallery, St-Martens-Latem – Belgium, solo show
  • Galerie Bartoux, Honfleur – France, group show

2017

  • Galerie Grulier, Courchevel – France
  • Galerie Giardino, Maastricht – The Netherlands
  • Okker Art Gallery, Amsterdam – The Netherlands
  • Opera Gallery, Dubai
  • Opera Gallery, Hong Kong
  • Galerie Paul Janssen, Saint Tropez & Grimaud – France
  • Canfin Gallery, New York – USA, Solo Show
  • The Boutique Gallery, Cape-Town-Franschhoek – South Africa
  • Ransom Art – London UK
  • Galerie Bartoux, d’Art Elyseés, Paris – France
  • Galerie Bartoux, New Bond Street, London – UK
  • Galerie Bartoux, Croisette, Cannes – France
  • Galerie Bartoux, Saint-Paul-de-Vence – France

2016

  • Balo Living In Style, Antwerp – Belgium
  • Galerie Grulier, Courchevel – France
  • Opera Gallery Dubai, Monaco, Hong-Kong
  • Galerie Paul Janssen, Grimaud & Saint-Tropez – France, Solo Exhibition “Wood, Glass & Plexi”

2015

  • Balo Living In Style, Antwerp – Belgium
  • Galerie Grulier, Courchevel – France
  • Opera Gallery Dubai, Monaco, Hong-Kong
  • Galerie Paul Janssen, Grimaud & Saint-Tropez – France

 

Art Fairs

2018

  • Art Palm beach – USA
  • Art Up Lille – France
  • Kunstrai Amsterdam – The Netherlands
  • Art Breda – The Netherlands
  • Scope, Miami Beach – USA
  • ART FAIR – Luxembourg

2017

  • Art Breda – The Netherlands
  • PAN Amsterdam – The Netherlands
  • ART FAIR – Luxembourg
  • Scope, Miami Beach – USA

2016

  • Art Fair – Luxembourg
  • represented by Galerie Paul Janssen, Grimaud & Saint-Tropez
  • Antibes Art Fair, Antibes – France
    represented by Galerie Paul Janssen, Grimaud & Saint-Tropez