Artist Statement
I paint intuitively. The act of painting reveals the subject. It is unclear what the subject will be when I start a work. Themes that emerge are the layered nature of the memories I hold, the emotional response to events, and the retained traces of those who came before me.
Automatic drawing, active imagination and dreams are the starting point for drawings on paper. The marks are unplanned; each action leads to the next. The setting for drawing is currently intimate, small scale and introspective.
I either develop the image further as a drawing, assemble multiples through collage, or I transfer interesting elements to a further study in oil.
Dreams often offer vivid images; I work with them, as a painting or as an underpainting, serving as a context for something else.
Bio
Hilde Pollet is a Belgian and British oil painter who lives and works in Essex, UK. Her work is intuitively sourced from the layers of mind, memory and identity. Hilde’s style is expressive and surrealist, characterised by abstracted figures and a vibrant colour palette.
The process of painting defines her work. Automatic drawing, active imagination and dreams initiate the work. She relies on her brain’s inclination to detect faces and figures in random marks. The characters who appear end up playing the main role in storytelling. Pencils and crayons allow a swift capture of the first intuitions in drawing. She uses oil paint to develop the pictures, allowing coincidence to play its part.
After a successful career outside of the arts, Hilde is pursuing the next chapter of her life as an artist. She has self-trained through a focused programme of short courses with established tutors, chosen to strengthen specific technical and conceptual aspects of her work.
Since the start of 2026 Hilde’s work has been selected for 2 group exhibitions in her region.
Female figures are a recurring theme. They are not portraits of specific individuals, but symbolic human forms. They inhabit ambiguous, atmospheric spaces and are caught in quiet, transitional moments. I explore who they are, their mood and nature and how life feels to them, recognising that all my work is rooted in my own life experience. My aim is to intrigue and evoke recognition.
Layering, transparency, areas of density and texture are the witness marks of my search for the figure and story. Transparent oil paint allows tentative marks to test and refine the initial intuition, enabling me to work until clarity emerges.
I allow bare canvas or paper to create space, a point of silence within the many possibilities of the unfolding image.