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Maxi at home in the studio
Maxi at home in the studio, working on the Perspectives of Perception series.
Photograph: Chelsea, London, 2026
The Studio
Studio
Chelsea, London. By appointment only.
Chelsea, London
I chose to establish my studio close to where I live in Chelsea. There is something important to me about continuing the tradition of the painter who both lives and works in Chelsea, allowing the streets, architecture and changing character of the neighbourhood to become part of the everyday rhythm of making work.
Chelsea has an extraordinary artistic lineage. From the nineteenth century onwards, painters, writers and other creative figures were drawn to the area. J. M. W. Turner spent his final years on Cheyne Walk; Dante Gabriel Rossetti lived and worked there from 1862; and James McNeill Whistler became closely associated with Chelsea and Tite Street. Artists and their studios became an important part of the cultural identity of the neighbourhood.
My own studio is at EasyHub Chelsea on the Fulham Road, in an area with its own creative and countercultural history. During the 1960s and 1970s, this stretch of the Fulham Road became associated with “The Beach”, part of a lively Chelsea culture of artists, writers, musicians, designers and unconventional London life.
Today, my studio continues that relationship between making art and living within the neighbourhood that surrounds it. I walk between home and studio, observing Chelsea’s architecture, interiors, passages, changing light and perspectives along the way.
“Time moves on. People change, shops disappear and new lives fill the streets, but the bricks of Chelsea remain, quietly carrying the stories and creative energy of those who came before. To live and work here as a painter is to become part of that continuing tradition.”
Brigitta van Bilderbeek
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Paintings alongside each other
The paintings alongside each other, seeing how the perspectives work and flow.
Photograph: Chelsea, London, 2026
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More progress
More progress in the studio.
Photograph: Chelsea, London, 2026
The Café Beneath My Studio
The café beneath my studio has naturally become an extension of my practice, a place not only to make and show work, but to bring people together. I host reading groups, informal salons and gatherings where artists, writers and other creative people can meet, exchange ideas and discuss their work.
For me, community is an important part of what it means to be an artist in Chelsea. The area has a long history of artists, writers and thinkers meeting in studios, cafés and one another’s homes, where conversation and friendship were often as important to the creative culture as the work itself.
Creating opportunities for those conversations to continue feels integral to keeping that tradition alive. Chelsea will inevitably change, but by creating places where people can still gather around art, literature and ideas, I hope the neighbourhood remains somewhere that creativity is not simply remembered as part of its history, but actively lived.
