Live painting on the French Riviera: wedding, private party, private view, concert

The painters’ coast

The French Riviera welcomed painters, and they left places behind. In Antibes, Picasso set up in 1946 in the Château Grimaldi, which became the Picasso Museum in 1966. In Vallauris, he worked in ceramics. In Cagnes-sur-Mer, Renoir spent the last twelve years of his life at Les Collettes. In Vence, Matisse decorated the Chapelle du Rosaire, consecrated in 1951. In Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the Fondation Maeght opened in 1964. In Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, built from 1907 to 1912, opens its remarkable gardens. In Nice, the Marc Chagall museum has housed the seventeen canvases of the Message Biblique since 1973. For a private view, Giulia Dal Bon, a painter trained at Brera, sets her easel in a corner of the room, away from the walls, and paints while visitors discover the exhibition: the subject answers the works on show, the place or the music of the evening. The page on live painting for an opening or a private view explains how it goes.

The French Riviera through the year

The year begins with the winter festivals: the Nice Carnival and the Fête du Citron in Menton, in February, then the mimosa of Mandelieu-la-Napoule. In May, the Expo Rose turns Grasse into a city of roses, and the Cannes Film Festival opens the season of big evenings. In July, Jazz à Juan, created in 1960, brings its concerts to the Pinède Gould in Juan-les-Pins, above the beach, and the Fête du Jasmin in Grasse closes the summer in early August.

In September, the Cannes Yachting Festival and the Monaco Yacht Show fill the harbours. Around these dates, villas, hotels and yachts receive their guests in the evening, and a live painting gives these evenings a moment the guests take the time to watch, then a canvas that stays with the host or the brand. Giulia speaks Italian, French, English and Spanish: guests who come from several countries talk to her in their own language.

A private party on the French Riviera

For a birthday, a dinner or a family celebration, Giulia Dal Bon paints live in the place you have chosen: a villa on Cap d’Antibes or in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, a bastide in the hinterland, a flat facing the Baie des Anges, the terrace of a hotel, a yacht moored in the harbour. She paints what makes your evening: the sea seen from the terrace, the table laid under the olive trees, the hills at sunset, or the guests themselves, in watercolour, each one leaving with their portrait. At the end of the party, the painting is finished and signed, and it stays with you. The page on live painting for a private party presents every format.

A wedding on the French Riviera

For a wedding, Giulia Dal Bon sets up her easel at the edge of the party and paints during the cocktail hour or the dinner: guests walk by, look, come back, and the canvas moves forward before their eyes. In the evening, you leave with the painting, made and finished on the spot, and Giulia has prepared the drawing of the place before the day. The formats are on the page about live wedding painting on the French Riviera; for Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Vence, for Grasse or for Cap Ferrat and Villefranche, each destination has its own page.

A brand or company evening

For a collection launch, a partners’ dinner or an evening in a technology park, Giulia paints in front of your guests a canvas that tells the story of the brand or the team: the product, the material, the logo slipped into the composition, the colours of the house. The canvas then stays with the company, with an invoice in its name. The page on corporate live painting in Antibes and Sophia Antipolis explains the format, and three cities have their own live painting page: Nice, Cannes and Monaco.

The towns of the coast

Giulia travels everywhere on the coast, from the cities to the villages: to Juan-les-Pins, Biot, Mandelieu-la-Napoule, Théoule-sur-Mer, Le Cannet, Valbonne, La Colle-sur-Loup, Tourrettes-sur-Loup and Gourdon. Four cities have their own live painting page: Nice, Menton, Monaco and Cannes.

In practice, on the French Riviera

The length is decided with you, from about twenty minutes to a whole evening. Giulia paints in odourless acrylic, on an easel that finds its place on a terrace, in a garden, in a salon or on the deck of a yacht, with a little light if the evening is at night. She brings the canvas, the colours and the easel, and sets up where she is least in the way. From the seafront to the hinterland, travel and logistics are agreed together in the quote.

Over several dates. If the format suits you, Giulia comes back: a series of evenings, a whole season or a residency of a few days. The quote is then made for the whole, and you set the dates together.