CALIMA (MMXXVI) - Le Châle rose

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

A woman sleeps on a blue armchair leaning against a wall of azulejos. She lies on her side, cheek resting on her folded arms, eyes closed, her black hair loose over the blue armrest. A large pink fringed shawl, speckled with small flowers, covers her from shoulders to feet and falls to the floor. Above her, on the blue wall, a very ornate gilded frame encloses a bouquet of pale roses in a blue-and-white ceramic vase. In the bottom left, a pink bowl filled with peaches and a turquoise pitcher are set on a green side table.
The décor takes up more space than the sleeper: the tiles, the wall, the shawl and the gold frame occupy almost the whole canvas, and the body appears only through the shape of the fabric. The painting does not seek the portrait; it sets up a hot hour when nothing moves. The only thing that sleeps is her; everything else is pattern.
Cobalt blue on the wall, blues and greens of the ceramic on the cream tile background, powdered pink of the shawl, gold of the frame, muted green of the side table. The wall and the shawl are built up in thick paste, the former brushed in broad strokes, the latter brushed in light touches following the drapery, while the tiles remain flatly painted, motif by motif. The most richly textured area is the gilded frame, whose ornaments are laid on in relief, with the roses it encloses.

Technique mixte: estampe à encre pigmentée, vernis au pinceau appliqué à la main, pour la protection durable de l'œuvre.
Varnish applied by hand, for the depth of the blues 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 brought together by the artists Le Yack, Neo Pablo and Popsan within Atelier Joconde, a family studio where three sensibilities coexist: neo-realism, pop and free figuration. A calima is the sand haze that the Sahara blows onto Spain: it yellows the light, thickens the air and halts the houses. Under this name, the Atelier paints only sleeping women in Southern interiors, where the decor takes up more space than the sleeper: blue azulejos, walls covered with flowers, fringed shawls and floral robes, quinces, peaches and lemons set in the ceramics. The lineage is that of Nabi intimate realism like Vuillard and Bonnard, where wallpaper and fabrics become the real characters, and Matisse’s odalisques, bodies abandoned in the midst of a saturated setting. Everything is painted in thick paste, motif by motif, until the room hums 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, pink fringed shawl, cobalt blue, gilded frame, siesta, French contemporary art, Le Yack, Atelier Joconde