Since her childhood, Penelope Deltour has spent a lot of time at the seaside. This environment nestled in her memory early on as a safe haven. The amazement she experiences again and again when she sees the endless distances and panoramic dune views - which apparently do not allow themselves to be dictated by humanity - always tell a new (his)story. Deltour is fascinated by this horizon, which offers her a literal and symbolic perspective; a context that slows down time and space in our turbulent world.
“When I am surrounded by nature I experience an in-between, a state in which time becomes a relative concept. My practice allows me to immerse myself in that in between, and also to take the viewer along.”
Through the image of the dune, which forms the starting point of Deltour's observation and research series, she wants to bring the dunes to life. This is visually translated into a soft veil of salmon colors in cohesion with the greenish mosses and grasses, as well as the play of light, which are brought to life by the combination of gesso, pigment and pencil.
During her creative process, Deltour explores the limits of what she can do drawing-wise; a process that produces a wave of new interpretations. Through construction versus deconstruction, layer on layer, a layering is created that exposes her process and vulnerability as an artist. In each work a tension between figuration and abstraction is created and molded into a new reality.
Deltour's motivation for making work always starts from reality and its escape, with the primal force of nature as a facilitator and backdrop that achieves this. The images are, as it were, mental reconstructions of her experience in the environment. The image of the dune is opened up and stripped of any sense of time and place, which places the landscape in a more universal context. The works are deliberately not framed. They remain open and continue to live outside their carrier. Deltour takes, as it were, a piece from the view of the dunes. In her diptychs and triptychs she tries to fragment reality even more: the line that forms between the individual panels breaks the image and creates peace, making the images even easier to understand. The works are made restlessly, with a lot of expression, in which the artist likes to let coincidence play a role. The result brings peace of mind to both her and the viewer.
Text by Hilde Van Canneyt.
Penelope Deltour