Belgium
Florence Trus is a self-taught painter originally from Liège.
After studying conservation and restoration of works of art in 2020, she specialized in oil painting.
Her work at the Institute of Natural Sciences gave her access to entomology. There she discovered a new world. Unexpected and full of surprises. This awakened the desire to express the fascination she has for animals through painting.
Hyperrealism is a conscious decision to evoke a strong emotional response in the viewer. By creating careful and detailed depictions, she seeks to raise awareness and empathy for the plight of small to unknown animal species.
She tries to distance herself as much as possible from “classic”, purely decorative animal art. It is an ancient art that dates back to the first artistic representations known to mankind. Often seen as outdated, she wants to give it a new meaning. Beyond the decorative, her interpretation aims to raise questions about current issues: mass extinction and our relationship with nature. How we deal with our planet today, what massive impacts we have on it and what dramatic consequences this has for our ecosystems.
Florence Trus spends a lot of time studying the work of the photographers she works with. With some animals she feels a direct echo and triggers an urgent need to start her work. That's why she often has many paintings in progress at the same time.
Little by little she learned to work with transparency, for example with glass frogs or the Californian hare. The contrast of textures is also very important to her, for example with the turtle or the snail. The shine of the shell compared to the soft and transparent appearance of the body is a major technical challenge.
The choice of painting on a black background allows her to show the animals without defense or camouflage, they are visually vulnerable. By painting small animals on large formats, she tries to give them back their importance in our biotope.
Her art is a form of visual advocacy aimed at raising awareness and encouraging attitude change towards our environment and the species that depend on it.
In her work, Florence Trus also tries to explore the connections between ecofeminism and nature conservation. She believes in the need to forge close connections between feminism and ecology because the two struggles are closely linked. The devaluation of women and the domination of nature are symptoms of the same patriarchal system based on exploitation and violence. By giving animals a voice and celebrating their diversity, Florence Trus aims to break the mindsets that perpetuate this domination. Since 2022 she has been one of the founding members of the female artist circle fi.gure.
Florence Trus believes strongly in the power of art to inspire conservation initiatives and promote a more harmonious future for all living things on our planet. If man is the most dangerous predator on earth, he is also the one who can save it, and as Darwin said: "Love for all living things is man's noblest quality."
