Hildegarde resides and works in Terlanen (S.E. of Brussels) .

With an articulate preference for the figure and the nature of woman she went the self-teaching way in the plastic art form. The sensitive approach of this theme remains her source of inspiration which is utterly inexhaustible. The recognition of her artistic plastic language was a fact a couple of years ago when she obtained the third international prize for painting in Libramont.

Hildegarde Handsaeme paints mainly women and follows a harmonic and constructively perfect pattern. The figure in itself is dominating but she knows how to put it the right surroundings where nature and cosmos play a symbolic part. With a set of straight lines she builds a mysterial haze of inner feelings on the canvas in a simple and penetrative way. She does not call for hallucinating images but lets herself go with sensitivity guided by an unfailing intuition. Even when the figures at first sight seem distant they point to a certain duality and yet her usage of colours express a honest alliance between the data and the deeper thoughts. Simply and honestly Hildegarde gives us the message of love and tenderness which should be shown to each individual. In a pictural equilibrated and harmonic way she knows how to remind us of the glamorous intuition of woman. (F. De B. 1997)