"Painting makes me feel alive. Life goes fast, and we are only catching glimpses of it. This is what I try to depict with paint: an emotion, an impression, a moment, a feeling of light that will be gone in just a few minutes. Whenever I witness something that moves me, I get the instant urge to express it in paint and only feel at peace when the painting is done, somehow reassured that the fleeting moment is now captured on canvas. I love painting en plein air, in front of the subject; all the senses are stimulated, and I feel like I’m becoming part of the subject. Light is at the centre of my work and remains an endless fascination. I don’t see people, landscapes, or still lives; all I see are shapes, colours, and light begging to be captured with paint. I aim to depict the essence of a subject in a few brushstrokes, but making every single one count. Not including every detail means the viewer can fill the gaps and add his/her own story and emotions to the painting, hopefully elevating it to a whole new meaning."

Valérie Pirlot (b. 1982) is a belgian self-taught artist who moved to The UK in 2004. After graduating in Communications, she started her career as a Graphic Designer before becoming a full time artist in 2018.

Valérie is a founding member of The British Plein Air Painters group created in 2018. She was elected member of the Bath Society of Artists the same year. She also joined in 2020 ‘Art for Charity Collective’ (a collective of artists founded by Artist Lucy Kent raising money for charity). In 2022, she was elected Associate Member at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. Beside her practice as an oil painter, she has been teaching painting and writing for various Art magazines (Paint& Draw, Leisure Painter, Pratique des Arts).

Valérie works predominately in the great outdoors and gets much joy from capturing the beauty of her surroundings with freshness and passion - usually in one session ‘alla prima’. In the recent years, she has been inspired to paint live events such weddings, parties, fairs (Carter’s Steam Fair), circus shows (Gifford Circus) and music festivals. In 2022, Glastonbury festival invited Valérie as one of their four official painters to come and capture the spirit of the festival.