EN

 

My good friend Mey works at Schönfeld Gallery, she told me about a beautiful home in the heart of Avenue Louise in Brussels. The place belongs to one of the artists they’ve exhibited in the past: Lidia Szynkiewicz, who is also an acquaintance of Mey. I remembered her colorful still lives, and wondered if her atelier would be similar to her works.

 

Lidia had just come back from a forest walk and welcomed us with an organic tea. Her home is filled with trinkets and artworks, with folkloric objects of all shape and textures. It is an absolute gem in the middle of a busy urban neighborhood, a place where one forgets about the city to cozy up in front of a fire, to read a good book, to spend all afternoon cooking or crafting. This is a home with personality, with history. An architect owned it previously and added touches of design here and there. It’s like a countryside house, with an artist soul, in a metropolitan world.

 

To access the studio, one must cross over from the garden into a fronting brick house. The studio is a chiaroscuro vibe: especially in the winter months, there is a dark ambiance ignited by the vivid colors of Lidia’s paintings, or by the glass vases incandescently backlit. The outside vegetation has crawled inside; the fire keeps the high-ceiling room warm. Lidia’s art comes to life here, where stillness and silence subsist, where an enchanting light flows, where colors explode against the backdrop of nature and city.

​