Geneviève Toye

Born in Mouscron in 1965, I grew up in Boechout near Antwerp, a seemingly prolific soil for artists. Even though I reaped the fruits of artistic inspiration elsewhere, later on, such as initially at the academy in Borsbeek, Lier and thereafter at the Henry Van de Velde Institute or "the academy of Antwerp" as they say, during the study programme of Interior Design.

Following that, pencils, drawing board and brushes were traded in for 25 years of diligent work in the financial and consultancy world, alongside a busy schedule as a young and not-so-young mother to ultimately guide 4 children into adulthood.

When the eldest among them gradually discovered their own path, both school desks and the easel beckoned. School got priority: I graduated as a socioeconomic anthropologist in 2011, the degree which at that time, in a past in the 1980s, seduced me but could not persuade my parents because of its dubious profitability. Even today, it sometimes seems difficult to place the anthropologist within the corporate world, people tend to confuse him so incredibly often with the archaeologist, and we can agree on this one: digging up dead fellow human beings in office environments is, thankfully, very rare.

Time to bring out the brushes as the other boxes were ticked. In 2013, I timidly started painting again. It brought peace, in a, at the time, difficult period of illness and financial concerns. The brushes became my escape route to some breathing space during the last 10 tough years of permanent pain and a lot of other hardships.

The flowers have an ointment effect. The abstract works are an expression of the colour of the moment.

Wishing you a sunny, fascinating journey along my story, my chunks of hope and small windows to joy and peaceful life.