Clarissa P. Valaeys

Clarissa P. Valaeys is a botanical painter and draftswoman who has exhibited throughout Switzerland. Recent exhibitions include Un Soir aux Eaux-Vives and La Ruine Gallery, and Galerie Espace L in Geneva, Lausanne Art Fair, Montreux Art Gallery, and Galerie Lu Monin in Switzerland. Clarissa describes her process as “born from a deep, personal connection with nature, nurtured through real-life explorations and sometimes even through dreams. I often travel to immerse myself in natural environments, visiting botanical gardens and remote landscapes where I observe, photograph, and study plants closely. My passion for the healing and sacred properties of plants plays a central role in my creative journey”.

Inspired by the origins of her native Brazil, Clarissa captures exotic fauna, foliage, and florals to build a connection to her roots. Her naturalistic paintings are enveloped in darkness creating a great sense of drama and mystery. Like the film The Elephant Man by the late David Lunch, her paintings appear like an apparition in the final scene of the film where a woman comes out of the sky, shadows, amidst a cloud of smoke and speaks amongst a somber orchestra. Clarissa’s naturalistic paintings of plants measure in immense detail and slowly come out of the darkness and shadows of the background like the spirit of a ghost entering a dark room with only a hint of strategic light. 

Her lighter, design-like paintings on the other hand are often named after native tribal invocations of nature and sometimes contain portraits of indigenous people hidden in the background and blended seamlessly with the nature of foliage. These lighter paintings have a similar apparition-like appearance like her naturalistic paintings, however there seems to be elements of design and great deal of light which invoke a sense of cool mist like walking upon a water spring during the morning dew.  

Green Goddess (pictured above) depicts a heightened sense of realism capturing a close-up of a fern. The plant appears central to the composition and stands more like a structure rather than an organic entity. With an intense reality, the painting appears almost photographic and seeps out of the darkness like a dramatic theatre presentation. 

Clarissa P. Valaeys remains an artist deeply attuned with nature and her natural surroundings. Her respect for nature and indigenous people as well as her homeland of Brazil reveals a longing to return to her roots, seeking the healing properties of the green fauna. Through immense concentration and deeply inspired application to instill a theatrical presentation in her works, Clarissa reveals the tendencies of how nature touches upon the spirit and soul of life and even death. Her paintings can range from haunting, inspiring, and / or serene depending on the composition and mood. Through exploring the degree to which ferns and various similar plants impact the human psyche and experience, she brings to life a great sense of purpose and dignity to the meaning behind embracing our psychological well-being with natural elements. Clarissa’s paintings appear as if we have walked into a deep forest and jungle and have become lost, but instead of panicking, we become serenely absorbed by the elements of natural inducement into the very fiber of our being.

https://clarissapvalaeys.com