CHIT-CHAT-EAU Episode No. 8: Lukas the Illustrator, Illustrator
Welcome to CHIT-CHAT-EAU: Chateau Orlando's series of interviews hosted by our Co-Founder and Creative Director Luke Edward Hall.
Our eighth guest is Lukas the Illustrator. Lukas lives on the coast of Maine and creates intricately detailed pen and watercolour artworks inspired by love, men, water, myth, follies, grottoes, iris leaves and rustication. His work is a celebration of nature and a study of the way nature has inspired artists before him. Having been a fan of Lukas' work for many years, Luke finally met Lukas, highly appropriately, on a rocky clifftop in west Cornwall in the summer of 2024. Tied by their love of all things magical, maritime and Baroque, plus, of course, their names, the pair of Ls had much to talk about and enjoy in this wild, mythical region. Discover more about Lukas and his work below...
Where is home, Lukas?
I live in Maine, all up and down the coast. I’d been living on Westport island for a little over a year but I’ve left that house to float around for a while until another place calls me to settle down. In the fall I think I am going leave for a while to explore other parts of the world, but Maine will always be a place I return to.
Describe your perfect breakfast.
My perfect breakfast is eaten outside under the early sun by a body of water (to be swam in pre and post-meal), and must be both sweet and savory. Breakfast is the main event for me in terms of meals and I always have a seasonal fixation. This winter (after a trip to Quebec City) the fixation was a buckwheat crepe filled with roasted potatoes, lions mane mushrooms, and a poached egg topped with a knob of butter, a mountain of arugula, a squeeze of lemon, a handful of chives, and enough parmigiano to make the ingredients beneath it a mystery. There is, of course, always another crepe topped with salted butter and maple syrup, followed by a grapefruit.
What inspires your illustrations, what are you celebrating with them?
Love, men, water, myths… Follies, grottos, iris leaves, rustication. It all comes back to a celebration of nature and a study of the way nature has inspired artists before me. A grotto is a space devoted to the ocean and its treasures… perhaps built to feel like a sea cave or as a shrine to the shell. I think grottoes, and much of the art I enjoy and create, arise from the desire of man to play god and try his hand at creating his own maquette of what the Earth has already blessed us with. To me this sort of practice both satisfies the godly urges of man, and honors the Earth as the ultimate muse, the unreachable goal. Replicating the beauty of nature is a quest with no end and no chance of success, but it is what drives me to create.
Where do you go to feel alive?
Wherever the mountains meet the sea.
Your work is full of imagined buildings, flying ships, dragons and grottoes. Is fantasy important?
I think fantasy is completely essential. I also think there is truth in fantasy.
Your favourite book?
My forever favorite book is Orlando by Virginia Woolf, quite fittingly. A recent favorite is North Woods by Daniel Mason, and a slightly more niche favorite is Titus Groan, the first book of the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake. All of these are set primarily in mystical, ever changing homes, so it would seem I have a type.
If you could visit a historical moment or period, which one would it be?
I would quite like to have seen the Chestnut forests of the Eastern United States, or really any bit of precolonial America. Napoleon and Alexander I kissing in a floating tent at the signing of the treaty of Tilsit is something I think about often and would love to witness. I also very much need to see the pleasure garden at Enghien as it was in the 17th century. It goes without saying I would like to spend a few years with King Arthur and company, and of course a meeting of the druids at Boscawen-Un would be great fun.
Describe a classic Lukas outfit.
Leather boots, wool socks, the shortest shorts I can find, a belt with a brass buckle, a linen shirt with no less than 5 open buttons, a waistcoat, a handkerchief in my back pocket, and some aviators. A mix between Magnum P.I. and David Farrar in Black Narcissus.
Your favourite place to visit in the summer and why?
That’s a tie between Cornwall and Penobscot Bay. Both because they are where I have felt my most powerful and connected to forces greater than myself, and where more than anywhere else my life and my fantasies have become one. The joy I feel in these places is mythical, as is their beauty.
Name a country you haven't been to that you'd like to visit, and tell us why.
I’ve been dying to get to the south Pacific islands… French Polynesia, Fiji, New Zealand. I am extremely fascinated by Polynesian culture, specifically their navigational and seafaring skills. I am always drawn to islands because I think they make for a deeper intimacy between man and Earth, as well as man and man. I would also just really like to be lost in a sweaty jungle and bathe in a waterfall and nap on a palm tree and pretend I’m a pirate.
What do you think of your Chateau Orlando Endymion waistcoat?
I am a man of many waistcoats and it has quickly become the most prized of the lot. It is so beautifully crafted. I wore it to a contra dance the other night and I have never received so many compliments on a piece of clothing!
Which drawing or painting tool could you not live without?
My dip pen.
What projects do you have coming up?
My two most exciting projects at the moment are with a few of my dream collaborators, one a legendary British Toy Theatre company, and the other my favorite museum in London. I’ve also got a collection of patterns for fabrics and wallpapers in the works and I am chipping away at writing and illustrating my first book, and of course the usual flurry of commissions I’ve going at all times to keep myself afloat.
Tell us a secret!
Before I was Lukas the Illustrator I was Lukas Del Rey.