At home in Bruges with painters Jacqueline Dehond and Koenarrd Uyttendaele

By 1987, the couple were married and, after a four-year interlude in Brussels, they returned to Antwerp in 1991, as Jacqueline had landed a job at a graphic-design studio specialising in printed T-shirts ‘Initially, I was editing everything by hand. But then we started to use computers, which introduced me to a whole new exciting world,’ she says. ‘A lot of what we do today involves skills that I honed while working there.’

Koenraad, meanwhile, was taking the first few steps in his career as a restorer of historic buildings, working for Belgian decorating and restoration firm Decor Franck (formerly Maison Franck) in Antwerp. ‘I learned a great deal on the job as well as at evening classes in restoration,’ recalls Koenraad. He spent his Sundays shadowing restorer Bob Ghys, a specialist in Old Masters paintings, at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage. ‘He was an amazing man and I owe a lot to him,’ says Koenraad. ‘He would make all his own brushes from hazel and goose feathers, and many of the traditional techniques we use today for Jacqy DuVal, I picked up from him.’

In 1995, the couple moved to Ghent. Both had set up on their own by this point: Koenraad as a restorer of historic interiors, which saw him working on everything from townhouses and castles to Royal Collections; and Jacqueline as a designer of interiors fabrics. Soon, she also started producing her own hand-printed textiles, as well as acting as an interior-design consultant, which she still does occasionally.

The couple had been renting a beautiful apartment in a grand 18th-century building but, after the arrival of their first child, they started to run out of space and decided to look for a house where they could put down proper roots. Property in Ghent was expensive and they decided that perhaps this was the time to return to Bruges.

It was a wise move. The elegant four-storey house they bought in 1999 now forms a backdrop to everything they do, with three studios, a basement space for mixing pigments and high walls that are ideal for showcasing their colourful geometric canvases. It is one of the few houses in the city that was built between 1939 and 1941 (most date from the medieval period or 18th and 19th centuries), which meant it had some rather fussy details that put off several potential buyers, such as an elaborate arch in the sitting room and a multicoloured marble fireplace. Thankfully, the light-filled interior and the garden – which used to belong to a monastery and is a real oasis where the couple often enjoy long lunches with friends in summer – were enough to win Jacqueline and Koenraad over. They have spent the past 20 years here with their two (now grown-up) sons, making the space their own.

‘If we’d had a lot of money when we first moved in, we might have changed everything straight away, but luckily we didn’t,’ says Jacqueline. Instead, they started by removing the existing carpets to reveal dark wooden floors, which they bleached a warm honey tone. They kept an extraordinary green Forties bathroom suite and painted the walls in white throughout. ‘It made a world of difference, especially in the sitting room,’ she recalls. Now, this room often doubles up as a studio space. ‘We’re always working and this is such a nice room to be in, with its woodburning stove and good natural light,’ explains Jacqueline, who also works from a large room on the top floor. This is next to Koenraad’s den-like study, which is a treasure trove of beautiful furniture and objects.

Long before the pair formally launched Jacqy duVal, they had started to produce work together, including a fashion-show set for the Belgian fashion designer Gerald Watelet in the Nineties. ‘I wish we’d kept the canvases, but the ink was potent and we just didn’t have the space for it in our tiny apartment at the time,’ recalls Jacqueline.

In 2010, they decided to create some paintings together, working on a series inspired by the typically Flemish, grey geometric mural on a ceiling in Sint-Janshospitaal in Bruges, one of the oldest hospital buildings in Europe. ‘We’d seen the room on a heritage open day and thought it was something we could replicate on canvas,’ explains Koenraad. ‘Though we’d talked for years about making art together, it had never quite been possible alongside our jobs.’ Geometric shapes, Jacqueline says, were very appealing, ‘I find it is a good way of expressing a kind of depth with just two or three simple lines.’

Then, in 2011, the Belgian designer Jean-Philippe Demeyer spotted their work and asked Jacqueline and Koenraad to paint a piece for an open-studio event he was having. They dropped everything, created an enormous canvas for him and were soon exhibiting 20 or so of their pieces in his shop in Knokke. That prompted the need for a name and so Jacqy duVal was born. ‘It’s Jacqueline’s first name and my surname translated into French, which seemed much easier to pronounce than my actual Belgian name,’ reveals Koenraad laughing.

Soon, they were attracting quite the following. One of their first clients was Inge Onsea, co-founder of Essentiel Antwerp, who has one of their canvases hanging on the wall of her office in that city. And, since 2017, they have been represented by Antwerp-based gallerist Sofie Van de Velde, exhibiting pieces as part of solo and group shows. There are no rules about how they create their works – sometimes it is Koenraad taking the lead, sometimes it is Jacqueline. ‘It all depends on how busy we are,’ says Koenraad, who continues to restore historic buildings and admits he cannot pass a skip without having a rummage to rescue casualties of modern renovations. Currently, they are working on a painting for a client who has asked for softer colours. ‘I really have to restrain myself, but it’s good to leave your comfort zone,’ says Jacqueline.

‘We are influenced by historical geometric pattern, both European and Islamic, as well as by abstract American painting from the Fifties and Sixties, and artists such as Ellsworth Kelly, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko,’ says Koenraad. His background in restoration also informs their work. ‘It’s a misnomer that colour is contemporary,’ he adds. ‘Some of the brightest curtains and tiles date back to the 17th century.’ And that is really at the heart of what they do: the combining of old and new in a way that feels right for now. ‘What we’ve realised over the years is that all that matters is you care about what you do and are respectful of what went before,’ says Jacqueline.