CALIMA (MMXXVI) - Le Mur aux oiseaux

CALIMA - Mixed technique: print with pigment ink, brush-on varnish applied by hand, for the durable protection of the work.

A woman sleeps, half-reclined on a ochre striped cloth. Her head tilts to the right against a yellow cushion, her black hair loose on the fabric. She wears a long ochre dress and a blue bathrobe with small light flowers draped over the shoulders; one hand rests across her waist, her legs extended to the left, her bare feet peeking out from the dress. Behind her, a full wall of blue and white azulejos depicting birds and foliage. On the right, stacked cushions, a blue jug and a platter of yellow fruits set on the fabric.

The setting occupies more space than the sleeper: the tiling fills the top of the canvas and continues to repeat its motif even as she remains still. The painting does not tell the anecdote of a siesta but this gap, a woman painted in smooth flesh in the middle of an interior entirely built in pâte, an afternoon heat where only the material stays awake.

Cobalt blue and ochre yellow share almost all of the surface, heightened by pale skin tones and a plum stain beneath the cushions. The pâte is thick in the fabrics and the tiling, laid out motif by motif: each tile brushed separately, the striped cloth drawn in short strokes. The fruits and the neck of the jug bear the heaviest impasto, yellow and white in full pâte.

Mixed technique: pigment ink print, brush-on varnish applied by hand, for the durable protection of the work.
Varnish applied by hand, for the depth of blues and ochres and the durable protection of the work.
Support: premium canvas stretched on a wooden frame, ready to hang.
Format: 40 × 60 cm.
Signed CALIMA · Galerie Labo Joconde / Atelier Joconde · certificate of authenticity provided.

CALIMA is one of the creations bringing together the artists Le Yack, Neo Pablo and Popsan within Atelier Joconde, a family studio where three sensibilities coexist: neo-realism, pop, and libre figuration. A calima is the sandy dust breeze that the Sahara pushes onto Spain: it yellows the light, thickens the air, and brings houses to a standstill. Under this name, the Atelier paints only sleeping women in Southern interiors, where the setting occupies more space than the sleeper: blue azulejos, walls covered with flowers, fringed shawls and floral robes, quinces, peaches, and lemons placed in the pottery. The lineage is that of Nabi intimacy in Vuillard and Bonnard, where wallpaper and fabrics become the true characters, and the odalisques of Matisse, bodies abandoned in a saturated setting. Everything is painted in thick pâte, motif by motif, until the room vibrates around a sleep that no longer moves.

Each work is a unique piece.
Instagram @atelierjoconde.

Keywords: CALIMA, sleeping woman, azulejos, Mediterranean interior, floral motif, impasto painting, siesta, cobalt blue, ochre yellow, floral robe, French contemporary art, Le Yack, Atelier Joconde