Born in Kortrijk Hildegarde resides and works in Terlanen (S.E. of Brussels). With an articulate preference for the figure and the nature of woman she went the self-teaching way in the plastic art form. The sensitive approach of this theme remains her source of inspiration which is utterly inexhaustible .
THE WORK
Hildegarde Handsaeme paints mainly women and follows a harmonic and constructivey perfect pattern. The figure in itself is dominating but she knows how to put it the right surroundings where nature and cosmos play a symbolic part. With a set of straight lines she builds a mysterial haze of inner feelings on the canvas in a simple but penetrative way. She does not call for hallucinating images bet lets herself go with sensitivity guided by an unfailing intuition . Even when the figures at first sight seem distant they point to a certain duality and yet her usage of colors express a honest alliance between the data and the deeper thoughts.
Simply and honestly Hildegarde gives us the message of love and tenderness which should be shown to each individual. In a pictural equilibrated and harmonic way she knows how to remind us of the glamorous intuition of woman. (F. De B. 1997).
THE REVIEWS
Hildegarde's work presents such an original form and content that it is difficult to classify her in a painting school or to compare her to an eventual equal painter. Only gifted artists succeed to be independent from the start and grow gradually to a recognisable style. This is utterly rare. As a red thread Hildegarde's personality runs through her works which show us a very characteristic world. She seems to know always what she does and why and she leaves nothing to fate. her work is as she meant it and what she means she gets by her own way from background into focus so one can say without looking at her signature that her personality is clearly there. Her work is very personal and shows that art in se has no boundaries, is not subject to strict laws, is unseizable and difficult to put into words (E.BOON).