Muralist, Nicolas Thollot Arsac (aka Bottl3man) exchanges brush for beer bottles for HopSaint mural
by Kevin Cody
Six years ago, an artist friend suggested to French muralist Nicolas Thollot Arsac that he paint with bottle caps instead of brushes. Arsac tried, but quickly decided bottle necks produced more interesting results. Since then, his bottleneck murals have attracted a worldwide Instagram following. Among his followers is Brian Brewer, brewmaster and co-owner, with Steve Roberts, of HopSaints Brewing Company, on 190th Street in Torrance.
Brewer invited Arsac, (who goes by the name Bottl3man), to paint a mural on the 60-foot long, 14-foot high Sports Harbor Bar and Grill wall, across the parking lot from HopSaint.
Since his arrival a week ago, Arsac has completed six-foot tall portraits of Amy Winehouse, Bob Marley, Lady Gaga and Ray Charles, all done in the laborious pointillistic style, but with bottlenecks instead of brushes.
Before he leaves for home this week, the 28-year-old artist plans to add portraits of Aretha Franklin and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Nicolas Thollot Arsac (aka Bottl3man) applies circles of paint with the neck of a beer bottle to create a portrait of Lady Gaga at HopSaints restaurant.
The portraits, even Kobe Bryant and Amy Winehouse, look upbeat because, Arsac said, “Art should adapt to its surroundings, and HopSaints is a happy place.”
“And It’s a brewery, so I used beer bottlenecks,” he said
Arsac named the mural “Cheers!” He painted the name beneath the mural in big, comic book type, followed by an even bigger exclamation mark.
Arsac grew up in Lyon, in a family of architects, and studied architecture in Paris. He also studied mural painting in Paris.
His bottle paintings range from celebrities on canvases to whales on surfboards.
Bottlenecks, he said, are just a means of execution.
“Art is composition. I work everything out in my head before I start to paint,” he said.
To view more of Nicolas Thollot Arsac art, visit Bottl3man.com. ER