How did you discover your passion for drawing?
I spent a lot of time drawing in my youth. I was first drawn in by the world of comic books. My father would often bring home Gaston Lagaffe, Tintin, and Asterix. At the time, we also had weekly editions of ‘Spirou’ and ‘Tintin’. This is how I became passionate about drawing and storytelling, telling a story while exploring an imaginary world.
Tell us about your journey as an artist.
I started off studying science and mathematics at the Athénée Provincial de La Louvière. The school had no art department, which suited my parents very well (laughter). “You have to get a degree”, they would tell me. There was, however, an introduction to drawing class. This is where I would get my first taste for graphic art. During those few hours each week, I could feel something happening. My teachers were in fact quite complimentary during parent-teacher evenings (albeit less so for my other subjects).
A few years later, I started reading ‘Pilote’, followed by ‘Métal Hurlant’, and publications with a strong gearing towards science fiction and fantasy, by authors including Mœbius, Druillet, Caza and Bilal. I would also discover these two genres through novels by, among others, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, George Wells, Aldous Huxley, Frank Herbert, Edgar Poe, Jean Ray and Lovecraft. The style of these magazines was revolutionary for the time, and somewhat removed from the mainstream. I quickly understood that this is what I wanted to do.
A teacher pointed me in the direction of the École Supérieure des Arts Plastiques et Visuels de Mons (now ARTS2) where I would go on to study for five years in their illustration studio. This was the early ’80s. We were encouraged to express ourselves freely, and to question everything we had learnt up until that point. We found ourselves in the middle of a conceptual movement. Everything was art, from the way we lived, to the way we behaved, dressed and expressed ourselves. It was also during these years that I opened myself up to different kinds of music, including jazz, chansons, progressive rock and punk.
At the time, I used to read the monthly magazine ‘À Suivre’, which was packed full of different comic book artists. This is how I discovered a great number of cartoonists and illustrators that would go on to have a great impact on me, both in terms of graphics and overall storytelling, including Tardi, Muñoz & Sampayo, Hugo Pratt, Jean-Claude Forest, Francis Masse, Comès, F’murr, Ralph Steadman, Ronald Searle and Tomi Ungerer. These years were incredibly rich and fulfilling.
But you eventually ended up going into advertising?
Yes. Towards the end of secondary school, I met Jean-Paul Thaulez, who ran both a comic book store and a small advertising agency not far from where I lived. He designed book mock-ups, covers and colouring for Éditions Michel Deligne comic books, while also working on advertising campaigns for local clients. So, while I was following an academic path that was teaching me to draw in classical form, I was also drawing from a much freer perspective owing to passionate teachers that sought to make us more open-minded – all while simultaneously working on commissions within the field of advertising. This is how I learned to create a logo, structure a poster, compose a text while still respecting typography rules, prepare a document for printing, and so on.
After I left art school, I organised my first exhibition at the Galerie Tendances Contemporaines in La Louvière, where I presented my work ‘Récits Illustrés’, featuring the use of everyday objects. I gave them a soul, bringing them to life in scenes from people’s everyday lives. These were submitted to the monthly publication ‘À Suivre’, unfortunately without success. Forced to make a living, I pursued my advertising career with Jean-Paul, later working with other collaborators. For 27 years, I devoted my life entirely to advertising and computer graphics. In 2016, having become tired of the advertising world, I did a full 180° and resumed my artistic endeavours.
How did you develop your style?
When I started drawing again, it felt very peculiar. I remember starting my research exactly where I had left off 27 years earlier. This was a strange period. I was at complete liberty, with no professional constraints. Around that time, I rediscovered certain cartoonists and artists who had strongly influenced me through their technique and overall artistic approach, in particular Lorenzo Mattotti and his illustrations in both colour and black and white.
In fact, it was after reading an interview in which Mattotti described his way of working that I started drawing in sketchbooks on a daily basis. By increasing the number of doodles I made, I was able to better unleash my creativity without any stylistic constraints. I was also heavily influenced by Pierre Alechinsky, albeit from a different perspective. I was very impressed by his 2017 exhibition at the Centre de l’Image Imprimée in La Louvière: the fluidity, the spontaneity of the lines and the resulting imagery were incredible.
I can also count Marc Chagall, Francis Bacon, Léon Spilliaert, Edward Hopper and David Hockney as key influences behind my artistic development.
Which two words best describe your work?
Spontaneous and controlled. It all starts from pure intuition, and then moves on to a more cognitive approach.
Tell us about your creative process.
I push myself every day. I usually start with a series of Chinese ink sketches using a brush or pen on either a large or a small scale. I let myself be taken by what inspires me in the moment. I enjoy working with black and white contrast, adding nuance by simply creating juxtapositions between different lines and materials.
Some days I lack inspiration. On others, forms and themes emerge naturally. Sometimes, a subject can unconsciously echo something occurring in the present. ‘Into the Bubbles’ is a classic example of this. One day, devoid of inspiration, I decided to draw some oval and round shapes, seeking to create a balance between the black and white spaces. I then started picturing blurred colourful structures representing faces or characters contained within the bubbles. This was two years before the pandemic. Today, these images take on a whole new meaning, with everyone currently living inside their own small world, enjoying precious little communication with others outside of it.
This is how I work most often. I act on a spontaneous idea, creating a somewhat ‘automatic drawing’, before bouncing off ideas and sometimes arriving at a more concrete idea. It is a case of coherence born out of incoherence, if you will. By contrast, in other moments, I feel like I need a self-imposed framework, a structure, to work on illustrations in a more traditional manner. This is probably a practice I have inherited from my previous life in advertising. ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ is a perfect example of this in action. Other illustrations are currently in the pipeline, including ones for Franz Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis’ and Saint-Exupéry’s ‘The Little Prince’.
What inspires you the most outside of art?
Everything. Life in general. Running, cooking… I have even been practicing meditation recently. I love reading and learning new things. I’m an avid reader. I’ve discovered Joe Dispenza’s best-seller ‘Becoming Supernatural’, and similarly, I’ve also bought books by Bruce Lipton (‘Biology of Belief’) and Gregg Braden (‘The Wisdom Codes’).
How big a part does music play in your creative process?
I often listen to music. This is the advantage of working alone. You don’t have to pay attention to the world around you, but can lose yourself in your own thoughts, drawing inspiration from your chosen music. I listen to a wide variety of genres, from rock, jazz and world music, to opera, blues and chansons. These all serve to heighten my senses and inspire my overall creativity. This is why I’ve put my Spotify playlist on my website, to share what inspires me.
What is your favourite song to paint to?
Any song by the Belgian bands dEUS or Girls in Hawaii, absolutely no question.
I should also mention the long, melancholic tunes by Sigur Rós, the sombre melodies of Leonard Cohen, and the prose and rock ‘n’ roll attitude of Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine.
Which artworks have left you awe-struck?
I remember my city break in Madrid, when I first visited the Prado Museum and the Reina Sofia Museum. At the former, I was able to admire the works of Hieronymus Bosch (‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’), Goya (the ‘Black Paintings’), Velasquez (‘Las Meninas’), Dürer (engravings) and El Greco (‘The Adoration of the Shepherds’). The latter had works by Picasso, including the drawings for ‘Guernica’. I was completely blown away.
Who are your three favourite artists?
- Léon Spilliaert, with the incredible, melancholic atmosphere he manages to convey through his Chinese ink drawings.
- Emil Ferris, with her novel ‘My Favorite Thing Is Monsters’. Although difficult to grasp on first reading, it is an out-of-this-world graphic novel that is both incredibly dense and enjoyable.
- And Joel-Peter Witkin, whose photography was exhibited at the Photography Museum in Charleroi in 2020. His work employs a highly sophisticated technique and staging with baroque, offbeat, disturbing and provocative compositions that border on voyeurism.
Any films?
Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’. I love how he manages to develop a story around two characters in an enclosed space. This provides an exceptional richness both in terms of dramatic storytelling and cinematic technique.
Any novels?
It is impossible to choose just one novel! Can I pick three?
- ‘Kafka on the Shore’ by Haruki Murakami. I love the way he develops a story based on surreal events.
- ‘Il più et il meno’ by Erri de Luca, an excellent collection of forty short autobiographical stories told with a certain tenderness and poetic sensibility.
- ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. This is an absolute classic, a masterpiece. It’s a novel of discovery that manages to keep you on the edge of your seat right until the end.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?
I have absolutely no idea. All I want to do is continue down this path until my last moment on Earth. In any case, I can say that the further I go on this journey, the greater my will and the greater my desire.
I would like to share my favourites, my inspirations and my universe with as many people as possible through exhibitions or by publishing my illustrations. In fact, I have an exciting first project that I’m working on with my daughter. I sent her some drawings, which inspired her to write some short stories. We aim to publish a small collection as an artist’s book soon.