Just Looking Gallery is proud to announce the exclusive showing of world-renowned fashion illustrator Gregory Weir-Quiton. This historic collection of original works encompasses 60 years of fashion and entertainment industry illustrations and drawings. Ranging from fashion’s most iconic brand names like Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Armani to renderings of blockbuster film projects like Titanic, Harry Potter and the DreamWorks Logo, originally drawn for Steven Spielberg. Learn about Gregory Weir-Quiton, his extraordinary career, and how you can own an important piece from this famous fashion illustrator.
GWQ Formative Years
Growing up in Detroit Michigan, Gregory Weir-Quiton was captivated by the glamor and fashion styles he saw in movie films; as a young man, his love of drawing was ignited when he saw a fashion illustration in the local Detroit newspaper. After graduating from Cass Tech High School, majoring in fashion illustration, Gregory received multiple scholarship offers but it was his acceptance to the Art Students League in New York City on full-scholarship that set his illustrious career in motion.
GWQ 40 Years in Fashion Illustration
Gregory left New York City for Chicago working as an illustrator for both Carson Pirie Scott & Co. Department Store and Charles A. Stevens Womens Wear Store. From 1958 to 1961, Gregory oversaw a period of great expansion for Carson Pirie Scott & Co. as his fashion illustrations appeared regularly in magazines and newspapers.
In 1961 Gregory moved to Los Angeles, where for the next 35 years he worked with major California retailers in the fashion industry including THE MAY COMPANY, J.W. ROBINSON Co., THE BROADWAY, I. MAGNIN, and BULLOCKS WILSHIRE. In Los Angeles, Gregory met and married his wife Pamela Weir-Quiton, a celebrated wood worker.
The 1980’s was an incredible period for fashion illustration as it reached both its pinnacle and collapse. If there was one word to define fashion in the 1980’s, it was EXCESS! “greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good” as Gordon Gekko famously said in Oliver Stone’s 1987 film Wall Street. This decade brought an important 10 year partnership for Gregory Weir-Quiton with Los Angeles’ iconic Fashion Store, Bullocks Wilshire. BW wanted a visual style that was all their own. They were striving for a look that would differentiate them from all the other ads and stores vying for clients. BW gave clients the luxurious experience that only the 1980’s could sustain and Gregory was the illustrator to draw them in.
Gregory was able to develop a striking look for Bullocks Wilshire through a combination of using his unique illustrative style paired with the glamour of Bullocks Wilshire’s Art Deco Building. Utilizing architectural elements from their building, like the art deco elevator doors, decorative columns and patterned tile floors, as accents and background environments in his illustrations, Gregory captured a fashionable world that could only be found at BW.
GWQ 20 Years in Entertainment Illustration
As photography began to replace illustration in the fashion world, Gregory pivoted towards the entertainment industry. Working with Hollywood advertising agency BLT & Associates, Gregory illustrated for major motion picture projects and television series. His project list includes titles like Titanic, Sleepless in Seattle, Sabrina, Spiderman, As Good As It Gets, Harry Potter, Saving Private Ryan, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal, and Lost. Gregory’s original concept sketch, drawn on tissue for Stephen Spielberg, eventually became the iconic DREAMWORKS logo of the boy fishing on the crescent moon.
GWQ INTERVIEWS AND SPOTLIGHTS
JOAN QUINN PROFILE: GREGORY WEIR-QUITON, 2003
VERDUGO MONTHLY: GREGORY WEIR-QUITON THE ZEN OF FASHION ILLUSTRATION, APRIL 2008
“My passion is drawing the contemporary figure. Fashion design obviously influences my work since what intrigues me is how people design themselves (and everyone does). The drawing is an end in itself and I rarely add anything once the pose is over.”
GWQ Teaching a New Generation to See and Draw
With over 60 years of experience, 40 years in fashion illustration and 20 years in entertainment illustration, Gregory has spent time throughout his career teaching and mentoring a new generation of artists and illustrators through life drawing and illustration classes at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, The Academy of Art University in San Francisco, FIDM/Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, Drexel University in Philadelphia, Associates in Art in Sherman Oaks, and most recently online through virtual life drawing course on Artifelle.com
GWQ Collected Works in Exhibitions and Showings
Over the past 60 years, Gregory Weir-Quiton’s work has caught the eye of fashion design houses, movie studios, galleries and museums. Gregory’s original works have been included in prestigious exhibitions and showings like Woodbury University in Burbank and Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles at the Ben Maltz Gallery in the exhibition A Step Beyond: Contemporary Footwear, Functional to Fanciful February 8, 2020.
A Step Beyond exhibition presented a chronology of fashionable shoes over the past 100 years as well as focusing on footwear from a variety of perspectives; including custom or limited-edition shoes handcrafted for private clients, and shoes mass-produced for the consumer market. The exhibition featured artists and illustrators like Gregory Weir-Quiton who use the shoe as a protagonist in their individual artistic narratives.
1996 Exhibition at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
Just Looking Gallery Owner, Ralph Gorton, was first introduced to Gregory Weir-Quiton’s original fashion illustrations and figurative drawings in 1995 through world renowned pin-up artist Robert Blue. In 1996, Robert Blue and Just Looking Gallery partnered in the showcasing of Gregory’s original drawings and illustrations at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium during an exhibition of artist works exclusively on paper. The recognition and response to Gregory’s art during the two day exhibition made it clear that the time had come to offer the works for sale to our own clients and collectors. Between 1996 to 1998 Robert Blue facilitated the showing of Gregory’s originals at Just Looking Gallery, and with great fanfare the relationship resulted in the sale of nearly 50 original works. Robert Blue’s untimely passing in January of 1998 was devastating on both a personal and professional level for everyone attached to Robert.
As the art industry has evolved over the past 20 years, particularly through the accessibility of the internet, the exposure and interest in fashion illustration art has grown world-wide with a fevered pitch through public exhibitions in museums, publications in books and artist spotlights in films. Read how Museums, Art Galleries and savvy Art Collectors are rediscovering Fashion Illustrations as collectible works of art.
25 years after our initial introduction to the famously talented artist Gregory Weir-Quiton, we reconnected with Gregory and his wife Pamela in January of 2021 at their 5,000 sq. ft. Los Angeles studio. Meeting with the Weir-Quiton’s in their studio, where Gregory continues to work with live models and teach illustration and drawing classes, was a rare treat as we discussed his extraordinary 60 year career and reviewed the treasure of original drawings and fashion illustrations that comprise an unparalleled and historical collection of beautiful original works. Just Looking Gallery is proud to announce the exclusive showcasing and sale of Gregory Weir-Quiton’s original works in our own gallery. Preview the showing of these originals online to reserve a piece for your own home and collection, or visit our gallery in Downtown San Luis Obispo to see these striking works in person.
