"Lumière sacrée" (2026) is a substantial work in handmade linen paper, natural paint, and canvas (100 x 120 cm) by Belgian artist Sophie De Zutter (b. 1979). The title — "sacred light" — points to the work's central preoccupation: a luminous quality that seems to rise from within the surface itself, rather than sit on top of it.

The piece begins with linen paper that De Zutter makes herself, using traditional papermaking techniques learned through the transmission of an ancestral craft. Onto this raw, fibrous ground, natural pigments are built up in patient layers, allowing textures and reliefs to gradually unfold and reveal the richness of cracks, roughness, and delicate nuances across the composition.

At a metre wide, the work has enough presence to anchor a room while retaining the quiet, contemplative space where light seems to emanate from within the material that defines De Zutter's practice. Fragility and strength coexist in delicate balance here, the soft glow of the surface offset by its rough, weathered texture — a piece that rewards both distant viewing and close inspection.