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Luke Forsyth is a dynamic painter and illustrator based in Los Angeles, California. Renowned for his whimsical and vibrant approach, Forsyth expertly blends a diverse palette and various mediums to bring his unique visions to life. His work draws inspiration from the ordinary and the extraordinary, capturing everything from cozy domestic scenes and sweeping landscapes to iconic pop culture elements like Topo Chico bottles and fantastical castles.
Photos by Sophie Trauberman and Evan Trine
Interview conducted by Nalani Bouillon
Hi Luke. How do you describe your art to people when they ask?
The stock response is that my works are “flattened geometric abstract landscapes; often with still life and other figurative elements.” I prefer to describe my work formally before conceptually. Then I dive into theatricality and artifice of the (American) West in association with art production of Hollywood. Ultimately, it depends on the person.
You have such a distinctive surrealist still life style that is so cool, how did you arrive at this aesthetic and what inspires it?
Firstly, thank you! So sweet of you to say. I’ve always been a playful person with my head in the clouds; I love dreams, dream states and whimsy. I gravitated towards sci-fi and fantasy from an early age, and my parents let me read books like Dune, Mists of Avalon and many Anne Mccaffrey books ( Dragonriders of Pern series ) …after them of course. These books were major sources of inspiration. I’ve also always been into pseudo-spiritual new age stuff ( being raised in Northern California – it was a perquisite ). I like the spiritualism associated with Druids, monastic earthen hippy art, dadists becoming surrealistists, punks, wizards, surfers, graffiti artists…
Art History became a close friend when I was a very young man. I found solace in Max Ernst’s collage works, the surrealistic deep-space Spaghetti Western-esque paintings of Italian Georgio DiChirico, Joan Brown, and Richard Dienbenkorn’s figurative works (they still lift me to a high frequency). The more I mastered technical skills, the more necessary it became to unlearn and place play back into my practice. I wanted the nature of the work to beam and shine on its own ~ the medium is the message sort thing. As my practice progressed, I used collage and drawing to build a visual language all of its own. It’s a life long pursuit to refine and attain an artistic voice in spite of what fast fashion and the market-driven art world will tell you.
Within your pieces, you use a variety of bright colors and textures- how do you think about those choices?
I’ve always called myself a colorist. It’s a way to engage with my inner child, to follow my intuition and develop a sense of place. This allows me to cultivate a calming aura for the work and an overall vibe (to use the parlance of our times ~ haha). The increased use of texture advanced my exploration into the “superflat” aka “hard-edged abstraction” – a style of painting I discovered upon arrival to Los Angeles in 2013. I loved the act of reducing the amount of information needed for a composition; to strip bare, to essentialize. I cut images into blocks of color, took those new shapes into consideration while arranging a new image around a limited amount of elements. The work kept boiling down to less and less, and I found myself in a lull, disappointed by the outcome of so much removal.
I started playing with texture and found that it adds nuance, veritable tangibility, and complicates the surfaces of my works. It adds intrigue by flirting with maximalism and provides a foil to the “super flat” style that became emblematic of my work. I add a necessary element of surprise back into the work by using new materials and techniques like charcoal dust, re-harvested glass, various painting mediums and spray texture. I find the textures create a sense depth and realism to my compositions, and add life back into otherwise minimalist, flattened spaces.
Can you describe your painting process?
My painting practice process has always started with research. A spark of joy/enthusiasm, a sense of excitement towards a certain color, a dream, an imagined or actual architectural detail, a passage from a book, a scene from a movie, an organic form, a chair, an idea from a lecture, etc. I used to sketch a thumbnail, make a larger sketch and color-pencil it in as a starting point for my painting, but I’ve been switching that up.
I’m also exploring a “prep-a-blank- colored-gesso-surface-and-dive-right-in” model. I just draw from muscle memory using the Hans Hoffman “Push and Pull” modality that I employed for much of my college and many years beyond. This seems to provide a needed sense of freedom and chance that allows for “happy accidents” and “gifts” that can’t be planned. It also leads to disasters that can befall this method, but risk is a defined factor in this model. I am in a period of growth and just, metaphorically, throwing paint at the wall and seeing what’s sticking.
What’s your studio routine like? Do you have any interesting habits?
I am always working. Researching, reading , seeing art etc. My painting routine changes according to the various stages of production. I get to the studio late in the morning and work all day. I used to work at night but that’s a young person’s game. My routine changes seasonally. In the Summer, I get in early and quit early to beat the heat. I work typically for 6-8 hours, or 8-12 hours before a deadline; it’s a marathon and not a sprint. You gotta take breaks, eat nutritiously, and go for walks. I take in media all day – listening to jazz podcasts, staying current with the art world (praise artnet news), vhs tapes, audiobooks and dvds from the library. I always have something on. It keeps my mind active. Day in and day out in the same room can be both nourishing and mind numbing.
What is your earliest memory of creating something, and what was it?
Two memories. I have a memory of laying on my belly and drawing on a flipped over map that I got from my dad’s office. He made maps as a surveyor and I was allowed to make very large drawings on the backs of them. I remember it was a large castle and I was epically obsessed with meticulously rendering all the various helms and chest plates of the knights armor that were swarming the castle.
The other memory is when I made a butterfly that was a strip of an egg carton with paper mache wings. I remember adding ladybug-like spots on the body with a very large brush loaded up with paint. I love tempura and acrylic paint to this day. I was asked a few years ago to make a kite for an art show ( History of Frogs at Other Places art Fair in 2022) and I made a replica of this butterfly because I love that memory of creating such a fun piece. I have a photo of me and my dad standing in the gallery with the butterfly on the wall when I was in elementary school. Its a fun picture with me grinning ear to ear and my dad kinda looking out of his element and stoned lol.
What advice would you give a young creative person like yourself?
Get contracts. Believe in yourself. Drink water. Go to openings, parties and dinners. Meet artists. Ask questions.