Oh You Pretty Things: Stephan Balleaux at Patrick Painter

Stephan Balleaux, Pandora, 2018, Oil on canvas, 106 x 137.8 inches, (270 x 350 cm), courtesy of Patrick Painter Gallery

By NOAH BECKER, April 2018

I caught up for a convo with the great painter Stephan Balleaux who has a show on in Los Angeles at Patrick Painter Gallery. 

Noah Becker: Where did you grow up?

Stephan Balleaux I grew up in the south of Brussels, capital of Belgium and Europe.

NB: Who are your favorite historical painters?

SB: Velasquez, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Rubens,

NB: Ah, great taste! What time do you wake up in the morning?

SB: 6.30 am, yes, I have young kids.

NB: I sleep in late, it’s a bad habit. Do you smoke?

SB: I don't smoke.

NB: How do you think your lifestyle changes the way you paint?

SB: Everything in an artist's life changes the way to paint: how many hours one can use to work continuously, day job, night life, nomad or sedentary. I need to be very organized and constant, because I am doing a lot of things per week. I am totally not dreaming or hesitating when I am in my studio, I can't afford too much wasted time.

Stephan Balleaux The Companion in Pearls, 2018, Oil on canvas, 78.75 x 63 inches, (200 x 160 cm) 

NB: What's your favorite contemporary artist?

SB: For the moment I am looking a lot to Ed Ruscha.

NB: Interesting you would say Ruscha. What kind of music do you listen to? Do you listen to music while painting?

SB: I am listening to a lot of different music, mostly music with a baroque aspect or a progressive tone. The lasts few months it was a lot of Radiohead, Tool, 16 horsepower, Ron Carter, Bach, Pergolese. I can't paint if I don't have loud music in my ears, I am too sensitive to sound - music is my silence.

NB: Where are you currently living and how did you meet the art dealer Patrick Painter?

SB: I live in Brussels. After wandering a lot the last ten years, I settled back in a small town just outside Brussels. Patrick Painter called me one day and he proposed to me if I would be interested in working together - and I was! WM