Painting according to the method of Liane Collot d'Herbois

The watercolour painting after Liane Collot d'Herbois takes as its premise the colours in the atmosphere. The motif in the painting only appears at the end, after the colours are intensified through the weaving with many veils of watercolour paint.

Colours in the air come into being through the meeting of light (sunlight) and darkness; this creates twelve main colours. As human beings we also have light, colour and darkness in us (the darkness is in this case the darkness of our unconsciousness). Therefor this way of painting, working out of creative forces of light and darkness, has a certain effect upon us. We are dealing with creative principles working through the whole evolution of the earth and mankind so that it will bring us into more harmony with the universe.

The motifs that arise out of the layering of the colours have more vitality and intensity than those which we may have contrived from the beginning.

We have to become aware of how the light is working and how the darkness is working. This is the fundamental principle in this painting method.

By following several courses it is possible to undertake training in this method, which would also involve homework.

It is not necessary to have painting experience to follow these courses.

Colours, the children of light and darkness - and what they have to do with us as human beings.

As a starting point we use the colours in the sky in this way of painting. In the clear sky we see the blue, becoming turquoise towards the horizon. We are familiar with the beautiful colours of dawn and sunset, at this time the whole sky can be a feast of colour. In the atmosphere twelve main colours can be distinguished. They come into being through the meeting, the interaction, of sunlight and darkness. The air is matter and matter is darkness. This very fine kind of darkness makes it possible for the colours to appear. Outside of our earth atmosphere, there are no colours. The air carries the colours. The realm of the colours is actually a 3 dimensional world. When we paint the colours as coloured air, it gives them a real breathing quality. Looking at such a painting really gives the feeling that we can breath easily. We intensify the colours with many veils of watercolour paint.

As human beings we have in us light, colour and darkness equivalent to those in the sense world.

What actually is our light?. When we have a thought that makes something clear we experience it as a light. This is the light of thinking. It brings us consciousness about something. The light of thinking has the same quality as the sunlight in the sense world. There are also other kinds of light.

What is the world of colour in us? We compare colours with feelings. We say: cheerful yellow, fresh spring green, warm red, quiet blue. And we compare feelings with colours; green with envy or green with jealousy. But in this case it would be a dirty green.

We can feel ourselves at one with the beautiful colours of the sunset and we enjoy the rainbow over and again, when it appears in the sky. Our feelings and colour are one world. We breath in the colours, we breath out our feeling. It is the air which carries the colours and also carries our feelings.

How do we experience the darkness? Let us take an example. If we are placed completely in the dark for one kind of experience, so that we really cannot see anything, we are lost and disorientated. We can only begin to sense if we are outside or inside. Not knowing is unbearable for us. Just a little bit of light already gives us certainty.

We have a similar kind of darkness in us; we are not conscious of the impulses in our will, for our day consciousness they are enveloped in darkness. In our life we have a longing to know what we would like to do. It becomes conscious for us when we come into contact with something in the outer world, which works like a ray of light in our darkness, in our will. For instance two children are watching someone working. One of the children is fascinated by what he sees and knows for certain "when I am grown up I will do that too". This recognition enlightened what before had been shrouded in darkness. The other child was not touched by what he had seen, his destiny was to take him in another direction. Of course in many ways we can become conscious of what we are longing to do in our lives, by for example reading a book, hearing a lecture, etc. It could be that we say "this is just what I was always looking for". It makes us feel warm and enthusiastic.

So in our being we have light, colour and darkness. It might be clear that when painting out of these principles we are involved with our threefold inner being, as is the one who looks at such painting.

Light, colour and darkness are working in the whole creation. They work on all levels of the human life. When painting out of these principles the process is similar to the creation of the world through the working together of the divine beings of light and darkness. They have been ceaselessly creating the world ever since. Light and darkness themselves are not visible with physical eyes.

The colours in the atmosphere are the outer expression of the movement, that comes into being by the interaction between light and darkness. Colours in the sky do not show this movement. We can be aware of them in another way. For instance let us try once more to observe what happens within when we experience the colours of the sunset. We can feel the colours calling up movement in us. We can try to express this movement in a gesture, or even dance this feeling. In this way we make visible the movement of which the colours are the outer expression. We can imagine that different colours have different movements.

In the painting we make visible these colour movements. It is a very dynamic process. At the end of the process motifs will appear. These motifs should express the quality of the colours that have raised them. We leave something to the imagination of the onlooker when we do not work it out too far.

Looking at colours in this way results in the painting method developed by Liane Collot d'Herbois, 1907-1999. The source of her inspiration was the spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner. Light and darkness are working on all levels of our existence. Her life's work was to make this visible in her paintings. She painted until the end of her life.

I met this way of painting in 1974, just when I decided to stop painting, because I did not see any possibility of future development in it. The meeting of the way of painting of Liane Collot d'Herbois was defining for the rest of my live.

Elisabeth de Bruyne


Information about Elisabeth de Bruyne

Elisabeth de Bruyne has painted using the method of Liane Collot d'Herbois since 1974. In 1977 she became a member of Liane's painting group; the Magenta group. She has painted several altar paintings for Christian Community churches, for example for the priory at Kings Langley. She has had many exhibitions since 1984. After having taught the Collot method for four years in her painting school, she now gives courses in several countries.