Trending now
ONE DAY WITH | MASTERS & MUSES | WORLD OF CABANA
London-based painter and film director Leila Bartell explores nature, memory and the complexities of the human mind in her work. Sophie Goodwin talks to Leila - whose solo show at Tristan Hoare Gallery opens this month - about the rhythms and rituals of her day, her sense of discipline and protecting her own space in time.
INTERVIEW BY SOPHIE GOODWIN | MASTERS & MUSES | 13 JUNE 2025
Leila Bartell © Thea Caroline Sneve Løvstad
I wake at 6am, sometimes before the sun. There is a quiet sense of productivity in the early hours that suits me, nothing performative, just a sharp sense of consciousness. I begin with meditation, then journaling in fragments, and a short workout. I do not scroll. It is a ritual of clearing space, mentally and emotionally, for what is to come.
My sacred time to work follows, until lunch. I protect this without exception. I paint in layers, building translucent veils of memory, space and distortion. I am drawn to cloudscapes because they mirror how perception works; shifting, unstable, subjective.
Sometimes I have dreamt of the work the night before. On those days I start work immediately. Other days I’ll sit with the canvas for an hour before making a single mark. But the act itself- of searching, questioning, resisting - is non negotiable.
Artworks by Leila Bartell, on display at Tristan Hoare Gallery, London.
I rarely listen to music when I paint (otherwise I love music). I’m very sensitive to it, and I find it can hijack a painting. If I need grounding, I may put on Chopin. But usually, it is a voice, a nonfiction audiobook on philosophy or history. Something cerebral enough to distract the overthinking part of me, so the painting can emerge subconsciously, instinctively. There is a delicate art to blocking out the noise in one's subconscious but letting enough stimulus in to be productive.
Lunch is simple. I usually eat alone. I like solitude, not as retreat, but as alignment. It is a recalibration before the more outward facing part of the day.
If it is sunny, I will walk in Hyde Park. I watch the sky. I always have. The 21st-century sky feels different — fractured by digital life, ecological unease, instability, displacement. Not Constable’s sky. And yet it still holds something timeless. I take photos of clouds almost daily, not to replicate but to remember the feeling of looking up.
From mid-afternoon, the rhythm shifts. Sometimes there is a call with a gallerist, or an artist liaison drops by to film something. Other days it is a studio visit, a curator, a collector, an advisor, the kind of conversations that stretch the work beyond its edges.
There are practical days too: going over inventory, or doing planning. Occasionally we are sketching out ideas for future projects, or stepping back to think strategically about what comes next. And sometimes I will slip out to a lecture, or visit another artist’s studio, small things that keep the mind lit from other angles.
It is varied, but it all folds back into the work. The studio is the life force, and everything else orbits around this centre of gravity.
Walks in Hyde Park and watching the sky © Leila Bartell.
Evenings are quiet. I cook, read or watch a film. Lately, I have been writing more, not with an exact objective, but as a form of therapy. It's cathartic: a way of processing what painting cannot.
Books wise, I tend to reach for nonfiction. Philosophy and reasoning. Heidegger, lately. But there is usually a novel nearby, maybe one for every five others. Right now, it's One Hundred Years of Solitude. I read it slowly, 20 pages before bed, letting it linger.
I rarely go out unless there is a reason. An exhibition, a friend’s show, or one of the salons that have been springing up in collectors’ homes. I love being around other artists’ work, supporting their pledge and engaging in fruitful conversations. I do not chase novelty, or wild or new experiences. I look for resonance.
I protect my solitude. I sleep early, not from rigidity, but to wake clear-eyed, ready to return to the questions the work keeps asking.
Artworks by Leila Bartell will be on display at Tristan Hoare, located at 6 Fitzroy Square, London, W1T 5DX. The preview is on the 19th of June, and the exhibition opens on the 20th of June, running until the 25th of July.
the edit
Read Latest Articles
