Additions to my visual discography

Maybe you have already realized how much a music fan I am by reading this blog or by following my personal Instagram feed. Not only a music fan, but a very old school music fan: I prefer to listen to music on vinyl or tape rather than streamed or downloaded. Some of my music related illustrations are published in the "sound pics" section of this website.

Last year, thanks to my online postings, music producer Ologist BBB from the Better Beat Bureau collective of Virginia approached me and asked me to provide him with a couple of illustrations. His request eventually lead to my very first album cover artwork, for his "When Crates Create", which is a beat tape on actual old-fashioned tape. Therefore I owe the Ologist my very first entry in the online encyclopedia of discography Discogs.

This was only the beginning of our collaboration: thanks to the Ologist I am currently working on the cover artwork for another tape release. (Yes another tape release, and yes we are indeed living in the 21st century.) Actually, there seems to be a revival of tapes, similar to the vinyl revival we have witnessed during the last few years. Like the vinyl revival, the tape revival is spearheaded by music fans who like to have a nice object on physical support (a digital file is just not the same!), although the love of tapes represents more of an underground phenomenon than the love of vinyls.

The new tape project is inspired by breaks and samples mixtapes such as the "On track" series by Djs Kon & Amir in the mid 90's, mixing parts of soul, funk, jazz, rock records already sampled on hip hop or electro records or potential breaks to be used. Contrary to these releases, the originality of the project comes from the fact that the records have been selected by various vinyl collectors from all over the world, who have found each other thanks to the vinyl community on Instagram. I will not only provide the cover artwork, I have also had the honor to select a track for the mixtape. It is not easy to select only a single track out of the thousands of records I own, but I have finally found the one. A rare 70's Swiss psychedelic rock record, discovered some time ago through a fellow vinyl connaisseur and friend of mine.

My collaboration with the Ologist has sparked another project: I have been approached by his friend Jason McGuiness aka Analog Burners. He is a L.A. based DJ, record collector, graphic designer and music producer. You may know him because he released an incredible tribute to legendary Motown producer Norman Withfield a couple of years ago. I was very humbled when he asked me to draw the cover artwork for his new project, a jazz album mixing sampled beats and live instruments, which will be released on vinyl. Jason is currently putting the finishing touch on the recording and mixing of the full-length album. The first single will be a 45 vinyl with two tracks of the project titled "We could be / Empyrean Tones", featuring the works of such great musicians from the L.A. scene as keyboard player Mark de Clive Lowe, Aloe Blacc, drummer Te'Amir Sweeney and trumpet player Keyon Harrold, who played with D'Angelo, Beyonce, Jay Z, Kanye West, and played the trumpet parts in the Miles Davis biopic "Miles Ahead" (to be released in Europe soon).

Empyrean Tones: Keyon Harrold – Trumpet (D’Angelo, Maxwell, Miles Davis biopic, Kanye, etc) Duante St Louis – Keys/Organ Brandon Eugene Owens – Bass (Kendrick Lamar/Robert Glasper) Te’Amir Sweeney – Drums (Aloe Blacc) The role of art, at it’s most brave and brazen, has always been to provide unflinching reflections of reality. Music, the purest of all art forms, has the ability to crystallize moments and make history tangible. We’re living in the midst of current and historical pain, each new individual moment of destruction and despair opens deep wounds. From the opening sax notes, “We Could Be,” is a daring record in the tradition of grassroots music from the 60’s and 70’s. Bittersweet, it acknowledges the imbalance of pain within our communities. Bold, it refuses to buckle under that pressure and instead, it asks of us to step into the promise of previous generations. It proposes that we could be closer to freedom. While the lead track is a hard and hopeful aspiration, the flip side, “Empyrean Tones,” is the mind flight. This is where the heaviness of before dissipates like smoke and we are allowed to dream. Jason McGuiness, the projects’ producer, is in the old-school tradition of producers who need not pick up an instrument. With a vision and purpose, McGuiness culled an experienced group of music makers to create something that would reflect us back to ourselves. The instruments you hear are wielded by masters who have shared their talents with the likes of D’angelo, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Robert Glasper, Aloe Blacc and more. But they’ve never done something quite like this. From Te’Amir’s drums to Mark de Clive-Lowe’s keys, up toKeyon Harrold’s sublime horns and HighScience Project’s timeless vocals, the magic here is in the submission of the individual in reverence of the collective. pre-order link: http://www.fatbeats.com/products/jason-mcguiness-ft-the-high-science-project-keyon-harrold-we-could-be-b-w-empyrean-tone-7

You can listen to "Empyrean Tones" above and pre-ordrer the 45 single on fat beats records. It has already received raving reviewes by major US music magazines such as Ego Trip and Wax Poetics.

One of the privileges of being an album cover artist is the fact that I have already had the chance to listen to some other tracks, and I am really excited about the forthcoming release. It will also feature jazz legend Phil Ranelin from the Tribe collective of Detroit, who released many classic spiritual jazz albums on their Tribe independent label in the 70's and 80's (all releases are collectors' items today) and even recorded an album with Detroit Techno legend Carl Craig some years ago.

I am very happy to report that Jason liked my artwork proposals for the album cover. He liked them so much he had a hard time selecting only one illustration and might even be using two different drawings/paintings... To be continued.

Cover artwork llustration proposal by Gregoart (2016). All rights reserved. China ink and pencil on paper.

Cover artwork llustration proposal by Gregoart (2016). All rights reserved. China ink and acrylics on cardboard.

Un magnifique week-end de portes ouvertes à notre atelier

Comme je le disais dans mon précédent article, j'ai la chance de pouvoir travailler depuis quelques mois dans l'atelier du sculpteur et peintre Didier Guex, avec également l'illustrateur et peintre Christophe Thomas. Un atelier qui a ouvert ses portes le week-end dernier dans le cadre de la 10ème édition d'Aperti, un week-end de portes ouvertes d'ateliers d'artistes de Lausanne et environs. Un grand merci à ceux et celles qui sont venus, c'était un plaisir de vous accueillir.

Vue d'ensemble de l'atelier. Sculptures et tableaux sur la droite par Didier Guex (l'homme à la casquette). 

La manifestation a été une réussite pour Aperti en général et pour notre atelier de la Pontaise qui a reçu la visite d'une centaine de personnes, ce malgré une météo maussade et un emplacement un peu décentré par rapport à d'autres ateliers. L'occasion de montrer nos travaux et l'endroit de travail le reste du temps fermé voire secret, une ouverture appréciée par les amateurs d'art reconnaissant de pouvoir pénétrer cet atelier. Une opportunité également de discuter et d'échanger avec les différents visiteurs sur nos travaux et les difficultés liées à ce métier. Le travail de sculpture de Didier a attiré beaucoup de visiteurs qui ont du coup découverts nos illustrations et peintures à Christophe et moi, dont c'était notre 1er Aperti.

Des visiteurs devant mes dessins et peintures. A gauche, sculpture de Maurice Béjart par Didier Guex.

Je me suis rendu compte avec ce week-end de la chance de pouvoir occuper un espace dans ce lieu d'exception avec des artistes talentueux comme Didier et Christophe. Une chance car il est par ailleurs difficile pour les artistes de pouvoir se permettre d'avoir un atelier et de le garder, l'urbanisation de la ville entraînant la destruction de bien des ateliers d'artiste, plasticiens ou musiciens d'ailleurs. 
Une chance aussi de pouvoir travailler aux côtés d'artistes au style et à la démarche assez différente comme nous le faisaient d'ailleurs remarquer des visiteurs surpris par un tel mélange des genres. Artistes différents avec qui je partage l'envie irrésistible de créer, d'expérimenter et de partager le travail avec le public.

Christophe Thomas en pleine discussion sur son travail (toutes les illustrations sont de lui, sauf les 2 tableaux les plus gauche qui sont de votre humble serviteur)

Un seul regret peut être, celui de ne pas avoir pu aller à la rencontre d'autres artistes dans les ateliers ouverts pour l'occasion. Ceci est d'autant plus dommage car les artistes talentueux ne manquent pas à Lausanne, ce qu'Aperti prouve chaque année, avec beaucoup de jeunes créateurs qui participaient pour la première fois à la manifestation. Ce n'est peut-être que partie remise à la prochaine édition et il en va de même pour ceux auraient raté ce week-end de portes ouvertes. Pour ceux qui seraient intéressés à voir mes tableaux, j'exposerai du 27 mai au 18 juin à la galerie Iris à Pully, j'en reparlerai plus en détail dans un prochain billet.

Spring update: atelier, exhibition, cover artworks etc.

Back to business after a short vacation in Italy.

Since I last posted on this blog, I have been busy with quite a lot of private matters such as my wedding among other small things :) I have also been busy with gregoart related stuff, and I am happy to give you an update of what I've been up to since winter.

'Open atelier' week-end

First of all, please get your calendars and note the week-end of April 16th and 17th. On this week-end, artists from the Lausanne region will open the doors of their ateliers and I am one of them. The open house event for ateliers is organized by APERTI, a very dynamic association of Lausanne artists. Wait, I realize I haven’t told you about my atelier space yet. Since the end of last year I have had the pleasure of working in the atelier of sculptor Didier Guex (actually there are three of us, with illustrator Christophe Thomas). This space has given me the opportunity to work on bigger scale mixed techniques paintings. Please visit us in our atelier at Rue de la Pontaise 45 on the afternoon of Saturday 16th or Sunday 17th. We will be happy to welcome you and show you some of our recent artworks.

Gallery exhibition

Another occasion to see some of my recent artworks will be my next exhibition at the Galerie Iris in Pully. I hope your calendars are still close, so you can save the dates: the inauguration will be on May 27th and the exhibition ends on June 17th. I am very excited to show you brand new artworks. Without giving away too much I can already tell you that they have not been realized on iPad (the «old friends for sale» re-exhibition which ended in February was the last that showcased my iPad drawings). The exhibition at the Galerie Iris, taking place during the month of the gemini, will focus on the theme of duality, a theme I am very fond of.

Cover artworks

Furthermore, I have created cover artworks for two upcoming, great music releases. After the cover artwork for "When crates create", an awesome beat tape on actual tape, I will provide my very first artwork for a vinyl release. It is a jazz soul record produced by Jason McGuiness alias Analog Burners from Los Angeles, one of the artists who did a beat for "When crates create". He enlisted the help of great session players (who had already played with the likes of Aloe Blacc, Kendrick Lamar, D’Angelo and Robert Glasper to name but a few) including the rising trumpet star Keyon Harold who plays Miles Davis' trumpet parts in the forthcoming Miles biopic "Miles Ahead". A 45 vinyl single has already been released through Fat Beats (you can listen to it here) and been reviewed in two of the top music websites/magazines: Wax Poetics and Ego Trip . And spoiler alert: based on the new tracks I have had the pleasure to listen to already I assure you that the rest of the lp sounds just as great .

The second cover artwork will be for my man Ologist, who is into some great projects after his "When Crates Create" beat tape. One of them is a compilation of obscure vinyl records mixed together in the vein of the classic Kon & Amir "On track" breaks and samples mixtapes, with tracks curated by various records collectors from all over the world active on Instagram. Not only will I do the cover artwork for the tape, I will also provide a track for the compilation.

As a vinyl addict, collecting records since the mid-nineties, I cannot tell you how excited I am about these two music releases, and about playing a humble part in their creation.

More gregoart-y stuff

I have always been interested in experimenting and I like the idea that my artwork comes alive in different contexts, on different objects. Some of my characters already appear on t-shirts, and I have designed a few accessories, but the experiment was very limited. Thanks to the internet and partner websites there are so many possibilities to make my artwork accessible that I am currently in the process of creating more diverse objects. Stay tuned!

Limited edition prints

Last but not least, I am also planning to release a limited edition of high-quality prints on the theme of jazz music through Manétiz, an impressive start-up dedicated to providing an original art experience.

As you can see, a lot of great events and releases to come in the near future! And to be sure not to miss any news, you can subscribe to my newsletter using the form on the right of this page.

I Wish You a Jazzy and Colorful New Year

It is already time to wrap up 2015. What an incredible year this has been for me, with the launch of this website and many other great things happening in my life. 2015 was also the year where I managed to follow my New Year's resolution: to draw every day. Unlike other New Year's resolutions I didn't give up after a few of weeks and kept drawing almost every single day. The artwork above, a sound pic called "A jazzy new year", is the latest on in a series of hundreds of black and white illustrations I did this year.

For quite some time already I had wanted to seriously get back at drawing, and it seems that 2015 was the right time to do so. I have been immensely inspired by a New Year message by one my favorite writers, Neil Gaiman, who wrote: "May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art - write draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself". The kind of message that truly resonates with me. And yes, I have surprised myself with some of my new pictures. Hard work pays off because I have clearly felt improvement in my drawing technique. 

Although this year comes to an end I won't stop here, and keep going on this good path in 2016, aiming at improving every single day. To make things even more challenging my New Year's resolution is to be more colorful! I will add more colors in my work and try to be a more colorful person in my everyday life as well. A colorful person, and in particular a colorful husband, as I am getting married in 2016. The coming year will definitely not be gray. I have found a studio for my artistic activities, and at the very beginning of 2016 already there will be an exhibition of my iPad drawings on forex in Lausanne. Another exhibition is planned for spring, presenting for the first time my large scale china ink artworks. And there will probably be more cover art illustrations, and definitely many many more colors.

I take this opportunity to thank you all for your support in 2015. You have encouraged me and given me precious feedback on my paintings and drawings, online and offline. Every kind word, every comment, every "like" on facebook or instagram, every moment you have spent engaging with my artwork (in my home, on my website or at my studio) are truly appreciated. Thank you!

"A jazzy new year" is for you.

Have a wonderful 2016 filled with a multitude of sounds and colors!

Introducing Oh ! the Beat Nomad

At the beginning of the year, I decided to take on an Instagram challenge and do « A drawing a day » as part of my new year’s resolutions. Not an easy task and like most new year’s resolution I couldn’t manage to do it for the whole year. Yet, after 4 months, I had posted more than 100 drawings and doodles (you can watch them on my Instagram account). I am proud of this as I had never produced so much day after day, or maybe yes, when I was a child. There is nothing like daily training to improve your skills and even though I don’t post a daily drawing anymore, I do practice daily.

Among other subjects, I drew a couple of Alien characters which got some positive feedbacks from the IG community. Even though I am not a social media die hard fan/user I do like me some Instagram where I post drawings as well as some pics of my vinyl records. What I like most about this particular social media is that you can follow and be followed not only by friends but by people from all over the world who share the same interests (a bit like twitter but using pictures instead of short texts I cannot write as you can see judging by my blog entries:) And this is thanks to Instagram that I have been approached by a beatmaker called OlogistBBB, BBB standing for the Better Beat Bureau collective out of Norfolk, Virginia. He saw some of my drawings and liked them very much, especialy the alien characters such as the one below.

I had heard of Ologist and the Better Beat Bureau who are Virginia underground hip hop best kept secrets. He had released a tribute album to Gil-Scott Heron composed of samples of the late poet. Those not familiar with hip hop might think : « well, they do not come from the main rap cities like NYC, LA or Atlanta ». Think again, Virginia is a major state when it comes to hip hop and R&B. The State is home to R&B icons such as Pharell Williams, Missy Elliott, Timbaland, D’Angelo as well as hip hop producers like Nottz or Bink! who appeared on albums by Jay Z, Busta Rhymes, Kanye West or even the last and excellent Dr Dre album (Bink ! did the soulful « it’s all on me » beat). Ologist is actually close to Nottz and Bink! and has been active on the scene for years, releasing good old hip hop beats, reminiscent of the mid 90’s so called « golden age » without being pale imitations.

So, Ologist contacted me on Instagram and asked me if I could draw a new alien character for him, one which would be kind of his alter ego, a bit like Madlib did with the Quasimoto character drawn by Stones Throw Art Director Jeff Jank. So I drew an alien character dressed like a B-boy and a real hip hop producer digging for records and using a MPC, one of the cult sampler/sequencer used by the best producers.

Ologist found the name « Oh ! The beat nomad » and soon after released a first track using the character, a nice little remix of « Rememory » by Chance the rapper, Donnie Trumpet & the social experiment ft Erykah Badu you can listen here :

The track was mentioned on a couple of major music blogs like 2dopeboyz and it felt really good to see our little alien in there. Then, Oh! the beat nomad struck again with a remix of « ...gointohell » by R&B’s newest star Miguel, a couple of days after the release of his album. The remix was also posted in some high profile blogs, and Miguel himself retweeted the remix on his account to give it a good exposure (he has more than 800k followers).

And this is only the beginning of « Oh ! the beat nomad » adventures as Ologist is working on his new EP called « Numb3rs » and I have the pleasure of doing the cover artwork. More info about exciting future collaborations very soon... To be continued