Charlotte De Geyter & Ben Sledsens
BERNADETTE; BEN SLEDSENS
Charlotte De Geyter and Ben Sledsens both work in the creative realms of Antwerp, Belgium — 26-year-old De Geyter is a fashion designer while 27-year-old Sledsens is a painter. They’re also a couple. “Charlotte is my muse,” says Sledsens. “We are very inspired by each other,” says De Geyter.
They met, as people do, on social media. “I didn’t know Charlotte, but I saw her drawings on Instagram and
I thought to myself, ‘Her work is so close to mine; I need to get to know this girl’,” says Sledsens. “We were working in a similar way before we even met.”
Sledsens often paints forests, lakes and animals. His style is what you might term ‘primitive’, in line with Henri Rousseau: there’s a flatness in his depiction, a graphic sense of shape and form. Almost with a designer’s eye, he uses bold, juxtaposed colours to help define his aesthetic — “I separate myself from other Belgian artists by my use of colour,” he says. De Geyter cofounded Bernadette, a fashion line she runs with her mother (from whom the label takes its name). The clothes are designed for women of every age, with ornate depictions of nature, drawn by De Geyter, set against clean tailoring. “The way Ben combines colours is very inspiring for me,” she says. “If I visit his studio, something might pop up in a print or a drawing of mine a few days later without me realising that I saw it in one of Ben’s paintings. Even a few weeks ago, I drew a plant, and it turns out I saw it in one of his paintings months ago.” In turn, Sledsens depicts Geyter in his paintings, and often her clothing, too — currently De Geyter works from home, so her dresses pepper their apartment. In his celebrated 2018 work Girl in the Yellow
Flower Dress, De Geyter appears wearing one of her own creations. He describes his portrayal as “the experience of Charlotte”.
Perhaps it’s because their disciplines are different that they tend not to butt heads, because after three years together, they continue to relish each other’s advice. “Ben pushed me in my use of colour and changed the way I look at shapes,” says De Geyter. “Right now, I am obsessed with drawing flowers, and it was Ben who pushed me to take that further.” Call it young love — call it whatever you like — but what a fruitful response to adoration.