Devriendt then experiments with different colours.
‘Abstract painters use colours to give meaning to their
work; I do this in a three-dimensional way,’ he says.
The Ostend-born artist initially studied painting
but quickly switched to ceramics, at the LUCA
School of Arts in Ghent. ‘It’s not like I had a plan to
be a ceramic artist,’ says Devriendt, and he admits
that it took him a while to get to creative grips with
the potential of clay.
Two years ago, he began driving to his home
town at the weekend, painting and documenting
its ever-changing horizon. Using the subtle colours
of the North Sea and the sky as they appeared in
his paintings, he experimented with different ways
of glazing to realise the concept on three-dimensional
ceramic objects. The resulting collection,
Space Horizon, presented by Brussels’ Pierre Marie
Giraud gallery in February this year, comprises
lamps and plates, each of which has a horizon line
and mimics nature’s shifting palette.‘The transparent luminaires add a new dimension to
these horizons, as they look completely different in
daytime compared with night-time, when the artificial
light illuminates the glazed porcelain from within,’
says Devriendt. ‘I always start from the quality of light,’
he adds, and he finds that quality in places other people
don’t look. Art, as well as design, he reflects, should
‘meld aesthetics, symbolism and a state of mind’. ∂
devriendt.infoABOVE, LAMPS IN PROGRESS
AMID DEVRIENDT’S SKETCHES
ON HIS STUDIO WALL
RIGHT, THE ARTIST’S VERTICAL
RAINBOW, 2017. NEW TAKES
ON THE THEME APPEAR IN
DEVRIENDT’S SPACE HORIZON
COLLECTION, IN HUES
INSPIRED BY HIS PAINTINGS
OF THE OSTEND HORIZON‘Abstract painters use
colours to give meaning to
their work; I do this in
a three-dimensional way’
128 ∑
Art