HORTENSE BATAILLE - LE PAON DE ST TROPEZ

Hortense Bataille-Watkins lives and works in Marseille. After studying at the École des Beaux-Arts de Caen and in several Parisian studios, she deepened her practice of watercolor, oil painting, and soft pastel over seven years in the United States, alongside renowned American and Spanish painters, including Sebastian Capella, Joan Grine, and Wolf Kahn.
Inspired by gardens, landscapes, living nature, and the shores of the Mediterranean, her world does not seek to reproduce reality. Hortense interprets it poetically, at the boundary between figuration and dreamlike imagery, revealing all its vitality.
Her signature style stands out for its bold combinations and radiant palette: almost fluorescent anise greens, lemon yellows, tangy yellows, fuchsias, turquoise blues, and indigo engage in a veritable firework display of color. Each shade is chosen with the utmost delicacy to bring the canvas to life and evoke an immediate emotional response.
Elegant, feminine, and deeply dreamlike, her paintings offer a sense of happiness, as if nature were suddenly flooding our gaze with light and joy. An invitation to immediate happiness.

She has recently trained in art therapy and now leads intuitive painting workshops, offering a space for emotional expression, release, and creative exploration guided by intuition.

With Les Paons de Saint-Tropez, the artist transforms a Mediterranean garden into a lush, almost dreamlike scene. At the heart of dense, colorful vegetation, a peacock moves elegantly across the composition, blending into the setting while immediately drawing the eye.

Vivid greens, deep purples, and touches of orange and pink create a bold, luminous palette. The stylized forms and strong contrasts lend the work a powerful graphic energy, poised between lush vegetation and chromatic freedom.

This canvas evokes all the exuberance of a summer in Saint-Tropez, with its secret gardens, southern light, and dazzling nature. An expressive, distinctive work that brings color, character, and a real presence to any interior.