I live in Wandsworth Common, London.
My work is designing other people’s homes. For the last three years, I’ve been living in a house we haven’t touched yet, though it’s in need of a lot of work. I’m excited...and relieved that next year we will be able to start to put our own stamp on it.
Luckily, my studio is a space where I have been able to feel creative and at peace in the interim, surroundings are so important.
My mother is artist Lucy Dickens, my grandmother used to paint, and my aunt is a sculptor, so I haven’t bought a huge amount of art, as I have been fortunate enough to have been given some of their pieces over the years. Having said that, we used to live in Kensal Rise, and I would visit Portobello market most weeks, and bought pieces both for clients and for our home over the years. Works included an antique silk embroidered tiger in a black lacquered frame which is probably the first piece I had bought that I had loved.
I want the art I hang on my walls to be a real mix of mediums and styles, and to have meaning. When I buy art, I look for something I resonate deeply with or that reminds me of a place in time. Inevitably there is a colour I love too.
If I could hang any artwork in my collection, it would be something by Paul Gaugin. I am drawn to his colour combinations. Either that, or a portrait by Soutines. I went to an exhibition of his work at the Courtauld quite a few years ago now, and it was so brilliant. I like figurative work best.
My prized possession is a huge still life of tropical fruit that my mother made us as a wedding present.
When decorating my home, I like to buy from antique or vintage stores mainly. Either in the UK, (I love Sauce London, Stowaway London, and Retrouvius), or even better, places I have stumbled upon on my travels abroad. I always make a beeline for a flea market or a brocante.
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@lonikachande | lonikachande.com
Photography by Milo Brown Photography
