The contemporary artist Saype has produced a new ephemeral work at the foot of Mont-Blanc, on the Italian side at an altitude of 2200 meters. A monumental fresco called “La Grande Dame” which pays homage to nature and its fragility.
It is a place where the gaze is irresistibly drawn to the peaks. In the Mont-Blanc massif, hikers evolve in majestic landscapes. If they lower their eyes a little, they can for a few days discover a monumental fresco on the mountainside. Like a call to contemplation.
The French artist Saype, known throughout the world for his gigantic works painted on the grass or on the sand, has produced a new painting in the middle of nature entitled “The Great Lady”. Two female figures, which could be a grandmother and her granddaughter, contemplate the horizon and the surrounding mountains. The ideal point of view to admire it is located from the cable car that connects Courmayeur, in the Aosta Valley in Italy, to the Helbronner point at 3466 meters above sea level.
“It looks like me when I look at the mountainsmarvels a young tourist. I’m here, oh look at this one, look at that one! I kind of feel like the little girl.” “She’s touching. adds the one who accompanies him. I wondered what she was pointing at and realized it was the mountains.”
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A paint based on chalk and charcoal
“The Great Lady”, painted on the mountainside, can be seen for several hundred meters around. To achieve it, the artist from Besançon worked for three days on these steep slopes. A creation that aims to be eco-responsible with materials that have no environmental impact based on coal, chalk and casein.
A very long process to develop. “I tested dozens and dozens of recipes with different pigments, different concentrations, sometimes even different binders, explains the former nurse who became a “land artist” ten years ago. Sometimes you want to have a glue so that it stays a little longer, you have to find a natural glue. It took me 3 years of research and development and after 5 years of environmental studies.”
His black and white works have traveled the world. From Rio to Paris, in cities and countryside, the artist signs poetic frescoes that question us about our relationship to nature.
The old lady would represent wisdom, experience and the little one the future and innocence. They are both contemplating both the immensity of nature and its fragility, this is the whole message of this work.
The regrowth of grass and bad weather should gradually erase this ephemeral work. If the rain and thunderstorms do not interfere, the work should remain visible in Courmayeur for 3 weeks.