What does the ideal studio look like? How much time does an artist spend in his studio? Is it a sacred place? This week in 'The Artist’s Studio' it’s Lysandre Begijn, whose solo exhibition 'Echo's Answer' can be seen at PLUS-ONE Gallery in Antwerp until October 16.
Do you visit your studio every day?
I go to my studio almost every day. I like the continuity of work, as if you can hold on to an energy that way. You are faster on the level where you 'see' things, and can then anticipate previous actions. This routine – to put it simply – gives me depth.
What time do you leave for your studio, and how: on foot, by bicycle, public transport or car?
The morning is an important part of the day for me. I am at my peak then. I bike to my studio, which is located in the centre of Ghent. The bike ride is already a preparation for the studio work. I think about my work and where I want to go, what images I want to express, colour combinations I want to merge, shapes I want to look like. I cycle right through the historic centre, in the shadow of St Bavo's Cathedral, a very beautiful place in Ghent.
Do you hold on to certain rituals in your studio? Music or silence?
Rituals for me are repetitive actions with a certain concentration. For example, I always make tea before I start, sit in my usual chair and look at the last work I worked on the day before – in silence. That viewing often takes a while, twenty minutes, half an hour. I imagine how the work could turn out, I visualize the possibilities. While painting itself, I usually put on music by Arooj Aftab, Adrianne Lenker, Cocteau Twins... Lately, I've been listening to podcasts about Carl Jung and old Biblical stories and Indian sagas. I look for a relationship between my imaginary figures and the characters from these wonderful stories.
How important is light to you?
Light is a very essential part of a studio. I would say: not only in a studio, but in life itself. For me, light is not just a functional element that we need to perform certain tasks with precision. It's more than that. Light is a total concept in which we feel good.
What does your work process look like? Do you work everywhere and all the time or does work only commence the moment you enter your studio?
For many artists, work doesn't stop the moment they leave their studio. That also counts for me. Images remain slumbering in your head, wherever you go or are. Those images influence your way of looking at the world, and vice versa. You get a lot out of your environment, which you then process in your images. For me, it's what I read, where I walk, what landscape I traverse, bark textures, faces in art books or places I visit, the people and their stories that surround me; all of this influences the works I make.
How much time do you spend on average per day in your studio?
I am usually at my studio around eight thirty, until three or five o'clock in the afternoon. As Nick Cave would say, "I go to my office."
Is your studio a sacred place?
The studio is not just any place. It's a place of freedom for me. Freedom is not only exuberance, expression and energy, for me it is above all depth. A place of concentration and focus, but also of experimentation and failure. Uncompromisingly expressing and shaping ideas and fantasies. Perhaps that borders on a 'sacred' place, but that depends on how you define holy. As in wholeness? In that case a studio can be a place where you can experience this.
Do you receive visits there; collectors, curators or fellow artists?
In my studio I periodically receive friends, artists, curators and collectors. At regular intervals – for instance, when I've finished working on a body of work – I think it's time for the works to be seen. Then I like to invite people to my studio. I then make an organic arrangement, I create a kind of atmosphere. It's not a museum, so I'm not installing an exhibit. People can really be immersed in another world.
What is the most beautiful studio you have ever seen?
I have not yet come across the most beautiful studio, but at a young age I realized that a studio can be an enchanting place. Very sporadically my brother and I were allowed in my father's painting studio. I experienced the place as magical, detached from everyday reality. The floor, full of Persian carpets from which pieces had been cut to paint on impulse, statuettes of saints with pictures stuck to them, small artifacts, feathers, wreckage… I wanted a place like that later.
What does the ideal studio look like?
Georgia O'Keeffe's Abiquiú studio has always been one of my favourite artist spots. The house and studio of the painter was bought by her in 1945, when it was still a total ruin. After a long restoration, it became a very bright house, as well as the studio. Her workplace overlooks New Mexico's Chama River Valley, desert and mountain range. The huge window gives a beautiful panorama. You understand how important that landscape has been to her in her paintings, as they are permeated by it. It’s that energy coming in from the outside. That connection with nature equals a kind of ideal concept of the studio for me.