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Mado le Niçois

Name: Mado le Niçois
Brand: Creations Awol
Availability: InStock

50 × 70 cm
Acrylic on canvas

€1100

In Nice, the seagulls know their place. At sunrise they are already circling above the beaches and the Promenade des Anglais, gathering along the shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea. As the city wakes, they move inland—perched on terracotta rooftops and chimneys, watching from balconies and awnings, or swooping through the narrow streets of Vieux Nice. Around the Old Town fish market, they are never far away, waiting patiently—or not so patiently—for their chance at breakfast.

Enormous, fearless, loud, endlessly hungry and full of attitude, Nice’s seagulls are impossible to ignore. Mado le Niçois is my playful homage to one of these larger-than-life local birds, set against the colourful storefronts, striped awnings and warm ochre façades of Old Town Nice.

The painting grew from my fascination with the layers of colour, architecture and everyday life in Vieux Nice—and from my love of fish, markets and simply observing the daily rhythms and small moments of the Old Town. Bright Mediterranean light meets deep shadows; graphic stripes and signage overlap with weathered façades; reds, yellows, blues and greens compete for attention. Above it all sits Mado—watching, waiting and completely at home.

The title is a wink to Mado la Niçoise and the unmistakable personalities of Nice. My Mado is another kind of local character: bold, opportunistic, slightly theatrical and very Niçois.

Mado le Niçois sits somewhere between a colourful contemporary cityscape and a character portrait. Rather than a postcard version of the French Riviera, it is a love letter to the character, colour and humour of everyday life in Nice and the Côte d’Azur.

Painted in acrylic, Mado le Niçois sits somewhere between a colourful contemporary cityscape and a character portrait. Rather than a postcard version of the French Riviera, it is a love letter to the character, colour and humour of everyday life in Nice and the Côte d’Azur.

Inspirations

Inspired by everyday life in Vieux Nice, Mado le Niçois celebrates the colour, character and slightly chaotic energy of the Old Town. The striped awnings, weathered façades, fish markets, narrow streets and bright Mediterranean light provide the backdrop, but the real inspiration is the enormous seagulls that seem to preside over it all. Loud, fearless, opportunistic and full of attitude, they have become part of the personality of Nice for me. Mado is both a portrait of one of these larger-than-life local birds and a playful tribute to the humour and character of life on the French Riviera.

Inspirations

Material & Features

Creative Process

Mado le Niçois began with observation—walking and early morning runs through Vieux Nice, sketching, taking photographs and collecting details that caught my eye: striped awnings, colourful storefronts, weathered façades, signs, shadows and, of course, the ever-present seagulls.

Rather than reproducing a single scene or photograph, I combined elements from different moments and viewpoints, taking the parts I found most interesting and inventing a new composition. I wanted to make the seagull the star of the painting—to capture not just the bird itself, but the attitude and larger-than-life presence these local characters have in Nice.

After working through the idea in sketches, I drew the final composition directly onto canvas, then built the painting in layers of acrylic, simplifying shapes, intensifying colours and playing with light and shadow until the different fragments of Old Town Nice came together as one imagined scene.

Creative Process