Alfredo Grimaldi (1950) - Rosa sul Mare di Positano

Title: Roses on the Gulf

The work "Rose on the Sea of Positano" by Alfredo Grimaldi presents itself as a vibrant homage to the Amalfi Coast, reinterpreted through a joyful and immediate color sensibility, typical of the naïf-impressionist language of the Neapolitan artist.

Oil on panel, 24 × 30 cm, the piece is framed with understated elegance by a sober light wood bevelled frame, with a soft, slightly rounded profile, in an ivory-linen hue that amplifies overall luminosity without competing with the inner palette.

The composition unfolds vertically, following the classic cliffside view typical of Positano: the gaze plunges down a steep slope that leads to the sea. In the center dominates a lush vegetation of red and shocking pink roses, arranged in an exuberant cascade that occupies almost the entire left side and the upper part of the painting. The petals, rendered with thick and full brushstrokes, create an almost three-dimensional effect thanks to the relief of color applied with spatula and brush; the dark green leaves serve as an intense color counterpoint, while tiny hints of yellow and white grant glints of reflected light.

The flowering vegetation fans outward downward, framing a narrow stairway/path that winds down toward the shore, bordered by overflowing pots of red geraniums, orange calendulas, multicolored petunias, and some hibiscus plants. This flowering path guides the eye toward the sea: a deep cobalt blue that fades into turquoise near the coast, speckled with small white-sailed boats and a few colorful vessels moored along the thin strip of golden sand.

To the right rises the typical cluster of stacked cube houses, white and pastel (ochre, pale pink, pale yellow), with the characteristic emerald-green domed roofs of a little church that emerges among the buildings like a jewel. The windows are reduced to essential marks, almost calligraphic, while balconies and terraces are arranged in a joyful and seemingly casual rhythm, typical of the idealized and dreamy vision that Grimaldi reserves for the coast’s villages.

The sky, an intense but not uniform blue, is lightly veiled by a faint gray-blue cloud in the upper left, which adds a softness and keeps the color from becoming too harsh. The light, omnipresent, seems to come from a zenithal and diffuse source, typical of the Mediterranean noonday: every surface reflects warm gleams, the whites of the houses become cream-milk, the greens take on golden glints, the sea sparkles with touches of white and turquoise.

The signature "A. Grimaldi" (or a similarly styled calligraphic variant) appears on the bottom right, in dark red, well integrated into the painting’s fabric without disturbing the overall harmony.

In short, this small format encapsulates all the sunlit radiance and chromatic euphoria that distinguish Alfredo Grimaldi’s production: an explosion of flowers, a sea inviting a swim, houses that seem to sing under the sun. It is a painting that does not merely describe Positano, but dreams it, amplifies it, makes it eternally in bloom and in festivity — a small portable paradise framed in light wood, ready to bring a fragment of the Amalfi Coast into any space.