Cote d’Azur Is Sunbeam Central, As Artists Transfer Light to Canvas

The sunlight is somehow different on the Cote d’Azur. It shimmers on the white cliffs that rise almost directly from the sea, and shatters into a million tiny reflections on the brilliant blue of the Mediterranean.

The coast of France’s southeasternmost province, from Menton to Marseille, seems to have an unlimited supply of premium sunbeams.

Artists have been coming to live and work in the hillside villages because the quality of light magically unlocks their inner vision.

My stay on the Cote d’Azur was to explore this phenomenon, to visit medieval towns clinging to hilltops behind the fanciful hotels, and meet artists who would talk from their hearts about the mystic effect of the light.

An Explanation

“Every day is another light here,” explained Nadine Vivier, the first artist I met. She’s a beautiful, diminutive painter whose words are colored with a delicate French accent. “It gives you a certain mood, and your work becomes more strong and more deep.”

Her studio is the upper floor of a small house named the Little Cat at the top of a steep and winding road. Nadine’s balcony overlooks a valley to the Mediterranean, which is only a few miles away. The cypress-covered hillside opposite is studded with beige and pink villas.

“I grew up in Belgium, but as soon as I got my wings I had to go away and feel the sun,” she said. “When you all the time live in dark places, it shows in your work.” The sun apparently is illuminating Nadine, for her work is free-floating interlocking shapes in pleasing pastels.

The visit was arranged by Pat Hyduk as part of Personalized Art Tours, a program she developed for those who want to know more about the Cote d’Azur than where the Aga Kahn used to stay.

The First Stop

We were to see a cross-section of artists, and our first stop was a mile inland to the hilltop citadel of Haut-de-Cagnes, built in the 14th Century by the Grimaldis, who later ruled Monaco.

We followed uneven cobbled streets to the home of painter Marouschka Melhorn.

She led us upstairs to her studio and apologized for its relative dimness, saying the light was triste (sad) in the morning. She spoke English, but hesitantly, making her feel even more shy that she probably was.

“This looks abstract, but to me it is not,” she said, picking up a large blue oil painting with tan and gold geometric shapes. “It is the idea of the pigeon houses on an island in Greece. I work with old paint, and for me it’s all the Mediterranean world.”

We stayed about 45 minutes, long enough for her to relax a little under our curious questioning, and for us to see her studio, her work and her terrace view of olive orchards sloping south toward the sun.

From there our driver took us on two-lane roads near St. Paul-de-Vence. We we were within sight of the bustling coastal strip between Cap d’Antibes and Nice, but where we were, we could hear birds sing and smell wild rosemary.

Buffet at Alexandre

At midday we had a buffet lunch at the Alexandre de la Salle Gallery. We met two more painters whose works were displayed in the gallery, Francois Decq, who works in strict geometrics, and Esther Morisse, a Bette Midler look-alike who paints bright, bold and slightly naughty women.

We sat together on the terrace, sipping wine and enjoying a delicious moment.

In the afternoon we were in the Roman town of Vence, set well back from the sea and high enough for a good glimpse of the lower Alps.

We visited Nall, an expatriate American known as much for his flamboyant personal style as for the precision of his work.

The detail of Nall’s work is exquisite but his subjects are bizarre--macabre combinations of living and dead things. His decor is an odd collection of mounted beetles, jars of bones, headless dolls, enormous feathers, Mexican masks.

My impressions began to settle as we relaxed at a sidewalk cafe near Vence’s city walls. The evening promenade began.

With Kind Eyes

Just east of the bustle of Nice the town of Villefranche arcs around a deep harbor. There is the studio of Michel Cabaret, a bearlike man with very kind eyes, who has commissions months ahead of his work schedule. Several of his works were in view, delicate sepia paintings on treated newspaper, with the subject of the work reflecting the headlines.

He invited us for champagne on the terrace of the adjoining restaurant. He likes foreign visitors, he said, “because when you talk with people who come from 20,000 kilometers away, you get a different view of your work than only your neighbors.”

Ascent to Gorbio

We had one more artist to meet, so our driver turned inland to a rural landscape and a steep, serpentine ascent to Gorbio, one of the Cote d’Azur’s “perched villages.”

Its streets were mere cobbled walkways between ancient stone buildings, with cats sleeping on windowsills and doorsteps. There to meet us was Michel Isnard, a French painter whose half-Spanish heritage showed in his nearly black eyes.

He’d sold most of his work at a recent exhibition, but his masterpiece remains in a 15th-Century chapel at the edge of Gorbio. Inside is only a simple altar and cross and four huge paintings based on the life of St. Lazarus. Looking at them, with their beautiful, dreamlike animation, was real pleasure.

In two days we’d never been more than an hour from the region’s glitzy life style, yet we were in a virtual ferment of creation. Each artist we met was productive and successful, and indicated that being here made the difference.

-- -- --

A representative of Personalized Art Tours can pick you up at any hotel from Cannes to Nice, and will take you to meet artists in any specialty you indicate. Transportation, lunch and translations (if needed) are provided. Groups never exceed eight people. Cost per person varies from $185 to $330 a day, depending on the size of the group.

Contact Pat Hyduk at 2 Allee des Ormes, Les Hauts de Vaugrenier, 06270 Villeneuve-Loubet, France. In France, call 93-20-37-60.