A lovely Oil on Canvas painting of The French Riviera by French Painter Pierre Bittar.
Born in 1934 into an artistic family, Bittar developed a talent for drawing and color at an early age.
His parents encouraged him in this direction, and he created his first painting at the age of 10.
During holidays, he used his time drawing, painting, and visiting museums, spending hours in front of each canvas.
From this, his passion for the Impressionists, and Monet in particular, was born.
At 18, upon the death of his father, he was forced to stop his studies and work to support his family.
Nevertheless, he continued to take painting classes at the Académie Léonard de Vinci, where he received his first prize in 1956.
Painting in his spare time, he exhibited in France and abroad, receiving several awards.
For his first participation in the Salon des Artistes Français in 1976, he received the silver medal.
His talent was now widely recognized, and critics were unanimous about his paintings and his Impressionist talent.
In 1979, he received the permanent gold medal at the Salon des Artistes Français, the ultimate accolade sought by all artists.
From then on, exhibitions followed one after another.
In Europe and the USA, galleries welcomed him with open arms, awards piled up.
This painting depicts a bay on the French Riviera, shown from a bird’s eye view and diagonally, giving it greater depth.
In the foreground, the red-tiled roof and the planted parapet remind us of the winding, overhanging road that runs along the coastline along the Mediterranean Sea, also referred to in France as the ‘Corniche’.
The low wall, bordered by lush, exotic vegetation, guides our gaze toward the top of the painting and the opening of the cape toward the sea, where the reflection of the sun takes us into infinity.
Created entirely with a palette knife, we admire the artist’s incredible dexterity, as he can create large, flat, smooth surfaces like the sea and sky, or, on the contrary, create incredible depth when depicting vegetation.
This lush vegetation is adorned with the multiple colors of the flowers that compose it.
The brushstrokes are shorter, the serifs denser, and the colors blend, combine, and contrast with each other.
Note the treatment of the araucarias in the upper left corner, which, with a few strokes of the knife, take shape and illuminate with sumptuous shades of color.
Pierre Bittar sees himself as a painter of light; in this painting, he magnifies the warm tones of the Mediterranean coast.
Oil on canvas, signed lower right, in a gilded wood frame.
Unframed 23 1/2 X 28 1/2
Framed 32 X 37