Delft Blue

About Delft Blue

This contemporary oil painting of flowers in a Delft Blue vase was created by Jennifer Hornyak.

An internationally celebrated Canadian artist whose impressive oeuvre spans more than four decades, Jennifer Hornyak’s beautiful paintings have long been influenced by the Fauvists she first studied and fell in love with.
Fauvism was a popular 20th-century artistic style championed by Henri Matisse, among others, that first emerged in France as an alternative to Impressionism. “Les Fauve” means ‘savages or wild beasts’ in French—the name a reflection of what was considered a revolutionary style characterized by a highly saturated colour palette. This oil painting of a bouquet in deep red, burgundy and white flowers is arranged in a blue and white vase that pops against the rich dark green background. The name “Delft Blue” is a reference to the iconic blue and white Dutch pottery that has been produced in Delft, Holland, since the 17th century.
Jennifer Hornyak usually begins each new piece with a sketch and then experiments with acrylics as a foundation for the oil painting that follows.
In the past few years, much of her art has explored floral themes. But for Hornyak, flowers are not ‘just flowers’—they are metaphors for life.

“I like rich dark palettes that echo the classics but are rendered in a more contemporary, abstract way.” Jennifer Hornyak

Jennifer Hornyak studied at the Grimsby School of Art in England. In 1961, she moved to Montreal, where she attended McGill University, the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and the Centre Saidye Bronfman.
Hornyak has exhibited throughout North America and Europe, including the Paris World Exhibition in 1987, where her work was shown alongside that of Modigliani, Picasso and van Dongen.


Hornyak’s work is represented in many private and corporate collections, including Bombardier Transport, Burroughs Wellcome, McCarthy Tétrault, Power Corporation and Hyatt Regency Hotel.