Grimaud, which you can see in the distance on the right, has taken center stage. The picturesque village of Grimaud, located in the Var region of the Massif des Maures, nestles at the foot of its feudal castle.
From the ruins of this castle, there is a beautiful view of the village, but also of the Gulf of Saint-Tropez with the lakeside town of Port-Grimaud, where our artist lived for many years.
The village is magnificent. It offers us narrow streets, arcades, flower-bedecked house facades, and charming little squares.
Women are honored on the Saint-Tropez peninsula at the Polo Club. Also, in this painting, Martine-Alison wanted to magnify this sport with this pretty girl!
I, Léo the toucan, am there, faithful, watching over the scene, just like my feathered friend in the foreground, the European Bee-eater. This bird, resembling a rainbow when it flies, is a very elegant friend. It's a summer visitor to the south of France.
I don't know if you can also see my friend, the Hermann's tortoise, on the left!
It's also called the Moorish tortoise.
It is the only land tortoise in France. It resembles its Italian, Spanish, and Corsican cousins, but it is genetically different and unique in the world.
It is considered endangered.
Martine-Alison's guilty pleasure can be confessed in public without feeling a certain shame.
She would lie down on her stomach to eat figs!... or rather, she would be ready to climb the branches of a fig tree to plunder them!
The shades of mauve, green, and black that come alive in this painting remind our artist of those delicious fruits.