Life Imitates Art

Hunt Slonem's life passions seem inextricably interwoven: his art overtakes his residences, his rooms become paintings, and his paintings depict his surroundings and travels to remote exotic locales. And he has a predilection for collecting everything that interests him: houses, studios, furniture, chandeliers, and assorted feathered and furry friends. (M. Slonem calls it "cluttering.")



Of his NY studios, one is a 50,000 sq. ft. space with 89 rooms, each painted a different color. And not just painted, but enveloped in color - ceilings, floors and walls. Each room like walking into a painting, or like opening a jewel box.

In another studio, exotic, brilliantly colored birds chatter and screetch from a 40' aviary, while cats wander throughout the rooms amidst plants and orchids and Victorian and Gothic furniture. In the past, there have also been monkeys and hedgehogs and turtles en residence.

Walls everywhere are filled, often salon-style, with paintings, mostly M. Slonem's own. And hung according to color and/or subject. (TT gets exhausted just thinking about the task of arranging all this art, let alone the furniture.)

"I've really tried to insist on showing and looking at my work against colored walls. I even prefer the same color wall as the painting. I love red paintings on red walls, blue paintings on blue walls ... Over the years I have had increasingly more rooms in which to experiment."

Top: Guardians, 2004 • Oil on Panel • 10" x 8"

Above: Napua Finches • Oil on Canvas • 30" x 40"

M. Slonem also happens to own three mansions, all of which he felt compelled to buy: Cordt's Mansion, a 12,000 sq. ft., 1863 Victorian in Kingston, NY; Albania, a 10,000 sq. ft. plantation in Jeanerette, La.; and Lakeside, a 16,000 sq. ft. plantation in Batchelor, La. Most of of the interiors he has done himself (with a little help from a few friends), and he enjoys scouring flea markets for furniture and old fabrics. (And, in case you thought you were the only one, M. Slonem admits to waking up in the middle of the night with inspirations or ideas on re-decorating or re-arranging.



W. 10th Street Studio Scenes

Pleasure Palaces, The Art & Homes of Hunt Slonem, recently published by Powerhouse Books, showcases this "self-created" world with lush full-page photos. Most spreads show paintings juxtaposed with images in and around his homes and studios, and offer futher evidence of how his art and his world have merged.

Green Room • W. 10th Street Studio

Brown Room • W. 10th Street Studio

"I had this fantasy about Picasso, that he just bought all these castles and filled them up and locked the door and then went on to the next fabulous chateau …"
"… that was my role model. That’s the only artist whose had a life … [except] Dali and Giverny [Claude Monet’s house] … I’d love to be able to do gardens next."

When asked what keeps him going, filling up place after place – "I think it’s sort of my art form."

Parlor • Cordt's Mansion

2nd floor bedroom • Albania Plantation

To read the complete interview or see more images of the studios, go to The New York Social Diary. Prints of M. Slonem's work are available here or here.


The New York Social Diary, photos by Jeffrey Hirsch; Pleasure Palaces, The Art & Homes of Hunt Slonem.

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"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."
George Bernard Shaw
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