Personalities
Where Horology Meets Art
Mike Brend, Eleven 11
Eleven 11 is the company name of British artist Mike Brend who is a mechanical engineer by day and artist by night. “It all started as a hobby. I am really into watches and I’m inspired by the Scandanavian minimalist style. I am a project manager for an oil and gas company and am used to doing technical drawings. I like the clean lines of the geometric shapes and the two came together.”
Brend’s clients are mainly watch collectors and watch boutiques and his most popular print by far is the Rolex GMT. He has produced drawings of Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Cartier, TAG Heuer, Breitling and Richard Mille and the list keeps growing.
“If this starts to pay me more than my regular work maybe I will leave my job and dedicate my time to this. I was recently invited to Dubai by a watch retailer to do some commissioned work, so if I could do more of these kind of projects, I would definitely leave the engineering behind!”
www.eleven11prints.com
Instagram: @eleven11prints
Cay Brøndum
An autodidact artist based in Copenhagen, Cay Brøndum creates a unique form of watch-inspired art that he calls historic horological art. Like many artists it was chance that brought him into the world of watchmaking.
Not a watch collector himself, he hadn’t even worn a watch for more than 15 years when an old friend asked to swap an Omega Speedmaster for some old motorbike parts. “I initially said no, but he insisted, telling me that the watch had been on the moon. This immediately sparked my interest. It obviously wasn’t the actual watch that had gone to the moon, but I loved the story. I love a good story and storytelling is a big part of my work. I read about the watch and made the swap. As an artist, each time I set my eyes on something new it sparks interest and becomes part of my artwork and this is what happened with the Omega.”
Painting mainly with watercolors, ink and acrylic, Brøndum’s style isn’t detailed. He prefers the more lifestyle interpretation of a watch with different textures. The watch is precise, but there are splashes of paint and brush strokes that add something unique to each artwork. He once found a bunch of old papers from the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s and decided to use them as a backdrop for his work, but now he is working on larger canvases as he is running out of old papers!
Brøndum creates a wide range of artwork from limited edition prints on aluminum (starting from €379) to large limited-edition artworks on canvas. He has stopped doing commissions due to a lack of time, but is happy to add a detail or two on request!
www.caybroendum.com
Instagram: @historic_horological_art & @cay_broendum_com
Quentin Carnaille
Quentin Carnaille comes from Roubaix in northern France and started his artistic career in architecture before becoming interested in sculpture. “I really loved architecture at school, I loved the idea of reinventing a town, it was so creative, but then there were restraints such as budget that put restrictions on my creativity. It was then that I started branching out, notably in horology where I felt free to create.”
Carnaille’s father was a watch collector so he had been exposed to watchmaking from a young age and it was towards watchmaking that he turned when creating some of his first sculptures, using components from old watch movements.
“The production process is particularly fastidious as each movement has to be disassembled and then each piece meticulously cleaned. Most of the movements are over 100 years old. I use powerful magnets to keep the components in place, but not all the movement pieces are ferrous so I can’t use them all. Nickel for example is not magnetic, so I find solutions by leaving the nickel wheels on their steel axis.”
Each of Carnaille’s creations takes about a month to create and they range in price from €9,000 to €60,000. They are available at the M.A.D Gallery in Geneva, Dubai and Taipei. He also has an upcoming exhibition at Pisa Orologeria in Milan from September 4th to 19th.
www.quentincarnaille.com
Instagram: @quentincarnaille
Julie Kraulis
Julie Kraulis is a Canadian artist, author and illustrator based in Toronto. She has a Bachelor of Arts in illustration from the Ontario College of Art & Design and admits that it is a little unusual that she draws watches. “I was never exposed to watch culture. It is far more dominant in Europe than it is here in Canada, but I wanted to work on larger drawings so I started to think about what objects would be interesting to draw and I stumbled across watches.”
She uses Staedtler pencils on Arches hot-pressed paper in a 26 x 40-inch (66 x 102 cm) format and will spend between 150 to 200 hours on each piece. Her style is extremely detailed, yet hyper realistic. “I like to have a narrative in my work so that it isn’t mistaken for a photograph; different design elements are always woven in.”
Her favorite piece to date was a live work she did for Omega at The Tate Modern in London to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Speedmaster. “My work takes so long that I did 50% of the drawing before the event and continued it on the night. I even drew the moon phase from the night of the event. This is hands down the most fun piece I have had the opportunity to create so far.”
Commissions start from $5,000.
www.juliekraulis.com
Instagram: @juliekraulis
Nicholas W. Starr
Based in Orange Country, California, artist Nicholas W. Starr works in corporate management and paints in his free time. “I am a corporate guy so the art is a side passion. I have a degree in fine art from California State University, Fullerton and started my early career as an artist designing for Dreamworks doing painting and graphic design, but then I followed a more business route.”
His interest in watches has been with him from a young age and when he started painting again he decided to paint a Rolex GMT 1675. It wasn’t a watch that he owned, but one that he really wanted!
He paints on canvas with acrylic and likes to use different inks among other materials: “My style is aggressive and heavily gestured; some people say it is almost street style.” He loves to paint watch faces and frequently does commissions for watch collectors.
The originals come in a large format (30 x 40 inches) and cost $19,480. Artist proof canvas prints that are hand-signed and limited to 150 are $4,950, and limited prints on museum etched paper (limited to 250 prints) are $680.
www.nicholaswstarr.com
Instagram: @nicholas.w.starr