Some time ago I have mentioned my project for a new high quality fine arts printing company called Manetiz. I am proud to finally present to you the finished artwork. It is my first ever tryptic drawing, a three-part black and white tribute to jazz music. I worked with china ink fineliner and brushes to show a jazz septet, split over three canvas. Unsurprisingly, this is the artwork series that has taken me the longest yet, which you can see in the level of details.
The first part of the tryptic shows percussion, bass, saxophone and keys. It is called The Saxophone.
"The Saxophone"
"The Trumpet"
The second illustration, called The Trumpet, shows keys, trumpet and drums. Part three shows drums, guitar and percussion and is called The Guitar.
"The Guitar"
The Saxophone, The Trumpet, and The Guitar can be appreciated as standalone pieces or as a tryptic (the three together as a single piece) showing the full jazz septet. Although I wrote part one, two and three you may have noticed that this order is actually arbitrary. I have drawn the tryptic as a loop, because jazz music is infinite. This means you could also start with the second artwork, then the third, and end with the first. Or start with three, then one, then two. The three artworks together form the collection Spirit of Jazz.
Jazz music is my favorite music genre and it was a pleasure to pay homage to this music. Believe it or the first recording happened exactly 100 years ago. A century old yet never dated, jazz is alive and well thank you, I therefore chose to illustrate a modern group, with a trumpet player, a saxophone player, a guitar player, a keyboard player, a bass player, a drummer and a percussionist. The spirit of jazz legends are represented as spirits guiding the young musicians, and also putting them under a lot of pressure: not easy to pick up a saxophone after John Coltrane, a trumpet player after Miles, a double bass after Mingus... Yet I’m glad some are courageous or crazy enough to carry on the torch, and even advance it into new territory. Two young performers, Keyon Harold and Kamasi Washington, are featured on an album I did the cover artwork for. They are extremely talented, the kind of young blood that pushes jazz to new directions. Both of them have just released new albums that I recommend highly.
The framed tryptic exhibited at the Manetiz inauguration. More exhibitions to follow.
When Manetiz approached me and asked me to be part of their first collection, I was honored because they showcase renowed Swiss artists, mainly photographers. Only few other illustrators were chosen for the first collection, but you should definitely check out their awesome work on the Manetiz website. On the website you can also learn more about the special Manetiz frame, which is key to the final product. Each Spirit of Jazz artwork comes as a 30x30cm original or 20 piece limited edition high quality print in a tailor made frame, certified, and exclusively sold on their website.
But if you want to see what the illustrations look like on a wall, you can visit one of the upcoming exhibitions. The Manetiz collection will be showed in various locations in Switzerland and France, for instance in Montreux as part of the Montreux Art Galerie fair, from Nov 8-12, 2017.