Rika Deryckere’s paintings of naked bodies are certainly colourful and powerful, full of movement and energy. Many are overtly sensual, if not sexual, an aspect of her work not often mentioned, possibly because the artist herself is quite private about this aspect of her work, partly as a result of the reticence of her audience to acknowledge the fact.

Maybe the closest honest response to these paintings is that of Annie Murat from the publisher Les Éditions du Taillepage, who writes:

Have you ever met a giant? Have you visited Vulcan's workshop, the ogre's house, the Wyvern's lair, the heart of the solfataras? Do you know who this funny redhead is who welcomes you there? She is strength and power. She is what lifts and terrifies. She is the hand that kneads flesh, restoring its truth.
     Blazing bodies or the disaster of decrepitude, we are here, we women, maskless, in our original savagery; superabundant goddesses, we engender the world, we devour it, and lay down our weapons. Elsewhere, as if separated from us forever, are our companions. Stripped of their finery, they appear as we know them and as they ignore themselves, totally helpless and so close, so like us. Rika shows us everything, without patience, but with so much compassion.