Illustrations in coffee and Indian ink
In our culture of screens and other priorities, Herbert Celis (Herb Cells) had not set hands on actual illustration equipment, i.e. watercolour paper, pen and ink (except coffee, which he drinks endlessly) since 2015. He has now resumed this practice, using coffee and India ink on paper rather than paint in a technique similar to watercolour.
In “JazzPresso Ristretto”, this ninth series of caffeinated cartoons, he gives a visual form to his impressions of jazz. Often the space seems too confined for uncontained trance states and a claustrophobic tension is unleashed by the illustration. The perspective this time is focused on the place of the female (jazz) musician who is still in the minority under the spotlights. Herb responds to it in his way on paper in his triple exhibition at the festival. Some of you may recall the drawings he did at the festival in 2015.
Herb is originally from Hasselt, has been drawing since the age of 6, studied cartoon drawing, set up the Naff label & management in 2012 and has toured as a lyric writer/guest mc in several groups. His current music project is called @fokkop.era
Vernissage on Thursday 24 November at 6pm for the opening of the River Jazz Festival
Brussels festival on three stages = triple exhibition !
See Herb Cells’s work at the Jazz Station, the Senghor and the Marni during River Jazz and beyond.
