Britt Dorenbosch: Studio Visit
“I like to have a lot of color around me, so my walls are from top to bottom filled with my own paintings, drawings and prints of inspiring works by female artists”
INTERVIEW WITH BRITT DORENBOSCH AND LAURA DAY WEBB
UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be an artist?
Hi, I'm Britt Dorenbosch, a visual artist from Utrecht, the Netherlands. Art has always been a part of my life. Several close family members have completed art school. And, when I was little, my mother often took me to museums and encouraged me to draw and paint. For example, between the ages of 6 and 8 my mother gave me sketchbooks in which I made a drawing every evening about what I had experienced that day.
After high school I went to study Sociology, but I'm not cut out for science. I rushed my Master's degree in Arts and Culture because I knew I was going to art academy the following year. This was the study I loved the most: drawing and painting for homework! And now, almost ten years after graduating, I am still a full-time artist. It's a wonderfully diverse profession, but I am still fascinated when my hand creates new work.
What is your approach to starting a new work?
I always look in my own photo albums for new work. Every few months I paste snapshots of my daily life in a photo album, the old-fashioned way. I make a visual rhyme of 4 photo's on every page. They are great reference books of the details of my life. If you browse through the books, you can see the changes over the years: the seasons, my vacations, the arrival of my daughter.
When I have an idea for new work, I flip through these books until I find images that match my subject or research question. I adjust that image while drawing until it has the right composition and colors. Sometimes this sketch becomes a painting, sometimes it remains a drawing. Increasingly, I also combine different photos from the same visual rhyme in one painting.
Do you listen to music when you are working and what do you listen to?
When I draw, I listen to podcasts. I find podcasts about what people experience in daily life or tales about history interesting. I think it's my predilection for anthropology that stems from that. When I paint I want to generate energy, talking people are not doing that for me. So I put on rhythmic dance music from around the world: afro, dancehall, baile funk, global bass, and sometimes samba and fado. More often, I channel my feminine power and only listen to female singers. I find that I make the best work when I feel empowered by these women.
What role does your studio space play in your practice?
My studio is the place where I make all my work, and I spend a lot of my time here. I am a star in making a gigantic mess when I am working, but also because I live above my studio and my studio therefore sometimes becomes a kind of a shed. But luckily, I can also tidy up very well, so I often start a working day with organizing my workspace. My studio is also a place where I get inspired by my own work and the work of others. I like to have a lot of color around me, so my walls are from top to bottom filled with my own paintings, drawings and prints of inspiring works by female artists.
When I look around my studio, I enjoy the quantity of work I have made. And, sometimes, I still marvel at the drawings and paintings; how did I make this? In a way, I step outside myself when I make work, as if the focus of creating takes you to another level of being.
Are there any elements or objects in your studio setup that have special significance to you and your practice?
In my studio, you will find various things that refer to my (grand)parents. The chest of drawers was made by my grandfather who was an architect and carpenter; I still cut my paper with scissors from my grandmother's inheritance; and there is a small school desk for my daughter to make drawings. I used this desk myself when I was little. My mother painted the legs of the chairs and desk in yellow and pink at the time, still a color combination that makes my heart beat faster haha. All these things remind me every day that I am not an autonomous person, but carry a history in which taste preferences are embedded
What are you working on now?
I am currently working on a project about motherhood. When I had my first child, a daughter, in 2019, I had just gone through a period in which I didn't really know in which direction I would take my work practice. Because my work revolves around identity and how it is shaped by your environment (in my case my mother and my maternal grandmother are a big influence) it was natural to involve my daughter in my work, as a new female generation. I recognize the colors my grandmother wore a lot, and the color block sweaters that my mother knitted for me and my sister, in how I surround my daughter with color. I am most fascinated by her little hands and feet exploring the world I am creating for her.
How did you come about your current studio? Any interesting, funny, dramatic, inspiring stories to share?
I have been living and working in a studio building in a suburb of Utrecht for about five years now. Around a shared cherry orchard are three such buildings, each housing 10 artist families. So I live in a community of 30 creative families. And that's what makes this place so special. It is a close-knit group of people who work together, but also spend a lot of time together outside working hours. I feel very grateful that I can live in this green and creative oasis in the midst of a lot of concrete and bricks.