Braastad Cognac x Stephane Dupuis Limited Edition

Tasting notes :

Colour : intense amber with mahogany highlights.

Nose : rich and complex aromas of dried fruit (apricot, fig, hazelnut), sweet spices (cinnamon), and notes of leather, honey and cocoa.

Palate : round, silky and well-balanced, revealing flavours of candied fruit, honey, toasted hazelnut and precious woods.

Finish : exceptionally long, warm and elegant, with notes of blond tobacco.

Stephane DUPUIS :
Born in Marseille on February 20th, 1970. He lives and works there.
Approach : ‘My work is an observation of contemporary human behaviour.’ 

Stephane Dupuis’s work begins with photography. With a spontaneous eye, he scrutinises the urban fabric intuitively. In the next stage, he analyses the shots to select the poses that define the connections between people – or the lack of connection: “It's above all these poses, these interactions or non-interactions between people that interest me. If the setting does not contribute to the story I want to tell, I remove it."
In his urban tales, he portrays the contemporary city-dweller without criticism or judgement, solely as a mirror of society.

Technical :
The ballpoint pen is the central tool in Stephane Dupuis’s work : ‘I draw lines and strokes. I use a single colour, blue, and I can only darken my drawing. At no point can I lighten it.’ This technique therefore requires long and meticulous work.

For him, the “limits” of the tool allow for exploring different graphic forms (scribbling, unidirectional lines, chevrons, etc.).

Different types of lines create volumes and materials. This results in a realistic impression : “I perceive my technique as a form of modern impressionism.”

“I erase the settings, because my tools form the setting for my urban stories.”

Stephane Dupuis wants to treat these contemporary subjects with contemporary tools : the ballpoint pen, a tool popularized for talking about everyday life, and street art spray paint, street painting for talking about the street : “I'm attached to the coherence between the story I tell and how I tell it.»
With his first tool, Dupuis expresses a beautiful metaphor for life : "I'm often told that we have no right to make mistakes when using a ballpoint pen. In life, we sometimes make mistakes. To err is human. And I draw humans."