PETRA HOREMANS

ABOUT
THE ARTIST

Portrait of Belgian artist Petra Horemans

Petra Horemans is a Belgian artist whose roots in art run deep through generations.

She grew up surrounded by creativity. Her father painted oil portraits and exhibited his work. From childhood onwards, Petra spent her days sketching, painting and observing the quiet power of images coming to life.

Petra worked in her family's bakery for years before training in massage and beauty therapy and building her own practice.
When psoriatic arthritis, a chronic inflammatory condition, made this physically demanding work impossible, her life changed direction. She returned to the family bakery for a few days a week, but her body continued to set limits.

In the space left behind, Petra found her way back to painting, something she had always dreamed of having time for again. It was not simply an alternative. It was a return to something that had always been part of her.

Her experiences shaped the way she looks at people, animals and the world around her. She knows that what is visible on the outside never tells the whole story. Strength can exist alongside pain. Beneath the surface, joy can live alongside sorrow, love alongside fear, and courage alongside vulnerability.

That understanding lies at the heart of The Wild Within.
Art that reveals what lives beneath the surface.

“nothing and no one is ever only what it seems.”

Explore the work

The WILD WITHIN

My work is not only about animals or human figures.
It is about what lives beneath the surface.

I paint the tension between strength and vulnerability,
fear and courage, hardness and sensitivity.
What appears powerful or dangerous can
also carry stillness, tenderness and grace.

The animal becomes a mirror, reflecting the emotions
and contradictions we carry within ourselves.

I'm drawn to realism, yet I allow both animal and
human portraits emerge through expressive, impressionistic impasto strokes, where gold breaks through darkness.

My figures emerge from darkness and are touched by gold.
The darkness holds what is not immediately visible.
The gold brings it forward.
Together they reveal something we may not always see,
but instinctively feel.

I do not search for perfect lines or flawless surfaces.
I want the traces of my hand to remain visible.
A moment of hesitation, an uneven line or the movement
of paint across the canvas.

Imperfection is proof that someone was there.
That there was emotion, movement and instinct.

A visible brushstroke is not a mistake.
It is a heartbeat.

Perfection is silent, cold…
Imperfection carries presence.

Through texture, contrast and open spaces,
I allow each figure to remain partly hidden.
Strength and vulnerability exist beside each other,
just as they do within us.

Art is not meant to be flawless.
Art is meant to be true.

This is The Wild Within.
Not only what we see, but what lives underneath.