Meeting with artist Alexandre Leray

Alexandre Leray is an artist and Beaubleu ambassador. He shares with us his world of dots and colors, and tells us about the life of "All," the character he created and who evolves within his works. A candid encounter with a cool kid for whom time has no hold.

With a vocational baccalaureate in graphic design and a design training at Strate, specializing in naval design, Alexandre Leray had all the tools he needed for a perfectly planned career in the world of industrial design. After graduating, he moved away from yachts and spent seven years in automotive design at a company that offered him a range of European and international brands as clients. As he climbed the ladder, he managed teams, but moved away from drawing. Then Covid arrived. He jumped at the chance of a layoff plan offered during the lockdown, a period that served as a revelation for him as he looked to the future of his artistic career.

Rich in time, Alexandre rediscovered the pleasure of line, and drew again and again. By immersing himself in the work of artists such as McBess, Gawx, Vexx, and Xavier Casalta, the world of doodles and pointillism became obvious. "I have a bit of a manic side, which is why I got into this technique" he laughs. "What I do today is a fusion of my two previous professions, graphic design and 3D. The dots grouped by the thousands next to each other allow me to give volume, depth, and an impression of light to the subjects I imagine" he explains. Manic, demanding, almost meditative... each dot placed is a decision, a tension, a moment. To the drawings made of dots, Alexandre added painting, more instinctive, to multiply the creative experiences. He plays with colors and shapes and invites the imagination to dream in the flowers, clouds, butterflies and other animals that populate his paintings.

It was in this joyful and playful universe that "All" was born one fine morning on a corner of a sheet of paper, a character that is now at the heart of all of Alexandre's creations. Symbolized by a gloved hand resting on two fingers above which floats an ultra-stylized human skull, "All" represents this universal gesture that we made as children: "we all played at running our middle and index fingers on a table. This character is that, a collective memory that speaks to all generations" he says. "The skull above represents consciousness, and the hand action. One without the other cannot exist". "All" has thus become the central axis of Alexandre's universe. It embodies neutrality, imagination, and unity among all. Faceless, but endowed with a strong graphic identity, it lets the imagination of the one who contemplates it take over to bring it to life. From the small format (18 cm) to the 1 meter sculpture, it runs through all the artist's works like a common thread. Cocooning, generous and soft in its rounded forms, children want to take it in their arms, while adults, for their part, project themselves into it.

Alexandre's relationship with time has changed a lot since becoming an artist. "I was driven by productivity when I was a designer. Since I started working for myself, time is no longer a constraint" he explains. In his world, time is no longer a functional and impactful factor. It is a material to be sculpted. "Pointillism requires a lot of patience. I can spend 12 hours on a micro-detail. If an area requires a few points, it takes me an enormous amount of time because each point placed will be crucial" he confides. He works without a watch, without a clock. "Detail isn't about rushing, but about the time you give it. Just like my project. It took me four and a half years to have a story to tell, my story. I never counted the hours in my work, while still giving myself time to do it".

This approach immediately spoke to Nicolas Ducoudert. Thus was born a collaboration between Beaubleu and Alexandre. What brought them together? The quest for the right gesture, but also and above all the question of time. "What I particularly like about Beaubleu is the notion of generosity. This generosity, all softness, roundness, subtlety. It's visually poetic, never aggressive. This approach touches me". An artist who takes time for each stitch he adds alongside a brand whose watches explore the different facets of the passing of time; the meeting was obvious. Displayed on the wall of the Beaubleu showroom, the dot-to-dot illustration that Alexandre created for the brand is a distillation of their shared dreamlike language: Penrose staircase for the vertigo of time, clouds for lightness, chiaroscuro for tension. And at the center, a Beaubleu watch that translates this never-ending question: in which direction should we take time?

Alexandre Leray
@all.illustrations