âI try to trick myself into thinking itâs the 18th century,â says the artist known simply as Lukas the Illustrator, speaking from his studio on Westport Island, Maine. To a soundtrack of orchestral chants or sea shanties, fanciful motifs flow from his old-school dip pen, conjuring scenes that hover between architectural ruins, theater sets, and sylvan dreamscapes. âLately, Iâve been fixated on men riding scallop shells and fighting dragons,â he reports.
Lukas grew up in Connecticut, traipsing through the forest behind his childhood home. He pursued art for a simple reason: It would allow him to spend time outside drawing from nature. He hadnât yet graduated from Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied illustration, when his friend the fashion designer Harris Reed got him a job creating packaging for MAC Cosmetics. Commissions have since followed from House of Hackney and AD100 maestro Beata Heuman.
âIâve always felt these two sides of myself, the prince and the green man,â Lukas says, explaining the creative push and pull between lifeâs finer things and the great outdoors. True to that tension, sumptuous canopy beds in woodland environs form a recurring subject. âI love the idea of a luxurious castle bedroom but with no wallsânothing but the trees, leaves blowing, a frog jumping over your bed, a stream bubbling by.â
These days, heâs channeling those reveries into a childrenâs book, a miniature theater for Benjamin Pollockâs Toyshop in London, and patterns for fabrics and wallpapers, among them a lattice of iris leaves. Not surprisingly, his dreams continue to grow bigger. âIâd like to create one of my arctic grotto tents as a mural,â he says, referring to his ongoing series of campaign-style drapery set in frozen landscapes. âYouâll see icebergs out the windows.â Consider it a trompe lâoeil 18th-century folly, tailored to our modern times. lukastheillustrator.com âHannah Martin
