Jean-Francois Debongnie

Jean-Francois Debongnie, born in Brussels, has lived in Singapore since 1989.

 

Debongnie is a self-taught artist and prefers large canvases on which he explores themes that inspire him in series such as 'Red Flowers', 'Summer', 'Dancing in the Wind' and 'Chinese Landscape'. In this series, Debongnie brings flowers to life – both as iconographic floral signatures that capture a flower's essential qualities rather than strict botanical representations, and as part of a landscape, flowers growing wild amid ripening grain.

 

Their overall impression is one of movement: wind-blown fields under a swirling sky of monestial blue. In these series, Debongnie prefers a palette of late summer tones: ochres and Naples yellow, raw umber and burnt sienna.

 

The use of Chinese ink adds a dramatic fluidity to all his works. In the Summer series, a horizon draws the eye beyond the ripe field to the turbulent stormy sky above, the hint of an approaching storm. In another ongoing series, 'White Flowers' and 'Chinese Landscape', Debongnie has opted for a more muted palette of grays, chalk and cream that both flow together and contrast beautifully with the Chinese ink. These predominantly monochrome works, which often border on the abstract, explore a variety of landscapes.