Studio Visit: Claudia Valsells
Claudia Valsells’ studio in Barcelona is a bright space where color is thought about, analyzed, and lived. Ordered yet always in motion, meticulous but with that kind of chaos that creative processes generate, it has become the place where the painter develops her chromatic universe. We speak with her about rhythms, processes, and systems.
Alzueta Gallery (AG): How does a morning begin in your studio?
Claudia Valsells (CV): I need to ease into it very slowly. You might laugh, but what’s hardest for me is actually starting to paint. Early on, I open the paint jars, look over the work from previous days, and see what I’m most eager to continue. And there are many things I do that aren’t strictly painting. For instance, my notebooks are my calm space. I make sketches in them with a brush, pastels, or pencil, and sometimes I write as well. It’s where I unpack my thoughts, almost like a meditative exercise.
AG: Do you have many different lines of work going at the same time?
CV: Yes, I’m very multitasking, because I approach color from many different angles. I usually have at least four pieces in progress simultaneously. For me, they function like communicating vessels: what happens in one piece influences another. I also work as a color consultant, which keeps me constantly thinking about palettes, ranges, and combinations. Everything ultimately feeds into the painting.
AG: The studio is very tidy. Would you say that’s typical?
CV: (Laughs) Yes, I’m not sure how long it will last, but at the moment it’s very tidy. Here are the canvases I’m about to begin, over there the stock for stretching, in one corner the finished works, then the experiments, the drawings… I like this order, but I also love it when the space overflows, because it means there has been a lot of activity, like fairs and exhibitions.
When I restarted the studio this September, I didn’t get around to repainting the walls white. I always feel a bit sorry when I have to repaint them because I love the record of colors that builds up over the months. But some days the wall interferes too much with what I’m working on.
AG: You have a rather unusual system for organizing your brushes. Can you explain it?
CV: If I had to clean them every day, I’d never finish. So I came up with this system: I keep them submerged in water, and since they hold a lot of paint, the water becomes heavily tinted. When I start a blank canvas, I use this diluted color for the first brushstroke. It becomes a base layer, a starting palette that gives each work its initial tone. I don’t prepare color in advance: I mix it anew each time, like painters used to with traditional oil palettes.
AG: How do you organize all your chromatic research?
CV: I’ve spent the past ten years putting order to the colors that interest me. I have small drawers where I keep my color charts, all arranged by range. When I need them for a project, they’re right there, easy to access. I can only approach that bench with very clean hands! I also collect all the paint-lid palettes. All the colors I’ve ever mixed are recorded there.
AG: Do you listen to music while you paint?
CV: It depends on the day. Sometimes music, sometimes the radio or a podcast. But what I enjoy most is talking on the phone while I paint, as it helps clear my mind. When I’m painting, the less mental noise I have, the better.
AG: How would you summarize your everyday life in the studio?
CV: Honestly, it’s a far more down-to-earth place than people usually imagine. In the end, everyday things happen here, just like in any other job: personal struggles, good moments, routines, anecdotes…
