Van Eyck Workshop,
the origins of oil painting

My name is Stéphane Brunner. I am a painter and photographer.

Very early, I was initiated to the secrets of the Flemish and Dutch masters of the 15th-17th century, closely following my father's research on their pictorial techniques.

It is not only a style that has been transmitted, but a true technical and visual language, developed at a time when oil painting was perfectly controlled, from the manufacture of pigments to the final application of glaze.

I patiently collected these recipes and gestures. In time, I became a painter, and I realized that respect for each stage — from support to final touch — was not a dogma, but a way of access to artistic freedom.

The Van Eyck workshop was born of this conviction: To regain the expressive power of the elders, one has to learn their rigor and their slowness again. Here we learn to prepare a panel, cook an oil, grind a pigment, compose a pallet, and pose the painting as one would pose a right word.

That's what I want to convey. Not to freeze it, but to freeze it serves as a solid foundation for any sincere artistic approach.