Introduction
I’ve often wondered whether intuitive art is a spiritual or a psychological phenomenon, or something else entirely. It’s a question I’ve returned to many times, and my answer has shifted over the years—not because my work changed, but because my relationship with its meaning deepened. I no longer feel the need to choose a single explanation.
What I see clearly now is that my creative practice moves between intuitive and visionary modes—and very often, both are present within the same artwork.
Intuitive art, for me, is not a style or a technique. It is a way of listening. I experience this listening as an openness to something larger than myself—a quiet receptivity to a divine presence and to what wants to come through.
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| ‘Guardian Fairy’, Intuitive Painting, Watercolors, Gouache and Pencils on Paper, by Rika Dehombreux, 2009 |
Imagination or Something More
For a long time, I spoke carefully about intuition. I would say that what appeared in my work could be imagination—images shaped by memory, experience, and the subconscious. That language helped me stay grounded and honest.
I was hesitant to name these appearances as divine messages. Today, that hesitation has softened. What once felt like imagination—or perhaps something divine—now feels like relationship: a quiet, ongoing dialogue with the universe, with presence itself.
The psychological element still plays a role. To shape what arrives as divine message, I draw on memory—formed through study, observation, and craft. Intuitive art, in my experience, needs both psychological grounding and spiritual openness.
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| The Holy Grail’, Intuitive Drawing, Colored Pencils on Paper, by Rika Dehombreux, 2016 |
Intuitive Art: Listening Before Knowing
When I work intuitively, I begin by letting go of conscious planning. I quiet my mind and allow the image to emerge without directing it. In these moments, I rarely know what the artwork will become until it is nearly finished. The hand moves first; understanding follows later.
This intuitive painting process feels less like construction and more like arrival. I experience these works as discoveries rather than decisions—as if something unseen gently reveals itself through color, line, and form.
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| ‘Day Dream’, Intuitive Drawing, Colored Pencils on Paper, by Rika Dehombreux, 2008 |
Visionary Art: When Images Ask for Care
At other times, an image appears inwardly before I begin. It may arrive as a clear vision, a fragment, or a strong sense of presence. When this happens, the creative process asks for something different: attention, reference material, study, and deliberate artistic choices.
Some visions are difficult to shape entirely from imagination alone. They ask to be met with care, structure, and skill. This is where ongoing attention to craft becomes essential, expanding the inner library of images held in memory.
I don’t separate visionary art from intuitive art. Vision, for me, is intuition asking to be met halfway—through attention, study, and devotion to form.
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| ‘Empress of Flowers’, Intuitive Painting, Watercolors and Gouache on Paper, by Rika Dehombreux, 2021 |
Symbols, Light-Beings, and an Interspiritual Practice
The imagery that appears in my work is filled with figures, symbols, and environments drawn from many traditions. I don’t approach these traditions as belief systems or doctrines, but as symbolic languages. Images allow different traditions to meet without hierarchy.
Many of the figures that appear are gentle, benevolent, and quietly present. I often refer to them as light-beings—not as fixed entities, but as symbolic companions that carry qualities such as compassion, innocence, joy, and peace.
I experience these images as messages—offered by the universe, or by a divine source—meant to bring joy, compassion, peace, hope, and comfort to the viewer.
I enjoy researching symbolic meanings, but I don’t believe images have one fixed interpretation. What an image opens for me may open something entirely different for someone else—and that openness matters to me.
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| ‘Bird of Faith’, Intuitive Painting, Acrylics, Pens and Collage on Panel, by Rika Dehombreux, 2019 |
Closing
Intuitive and visionary art, as I experience them, are not identities to define but ways of paying attention. The freedom to listen, to receive, to study, and to respond—moment by moment—is at the heart of my creative practice.
I trust both what comes toward me and what I have learned to hold it. In that meeting, the work takes form. This is where my practice lives, and where it continues to grow.
