Draw me a sheep
Fresco 65 meters long and 2 meters high commissioned by the city of Villefranche and the association troi3 (partner association of the Peinture Fraîche festival). It is located between two colleges along Avenue Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The central character is located just in front of the bus stop used by the students.
Saint-Exupéry is the theme that was asked to be respected to cover a fresco of more than 30 years old that had been made by the students and teachers of one of the two colleges.
Having now become necessary to have more heroines in history, books, cinema, etc… In this sense, the Little Prince has become a princess! Like the Little Prince, in this more modern and updated version, it travels from planet to planet in the middle of the stars. His super power to fly in space is a pair of rollers. She holds a brush in her hand and faces a small sheep naively drawn on a planet. Obviously a reference to the famous “draws me a sheep”. Between them and in the background appears an open-mouthed snake seeming to attack the sheep. In the original story the serpent is the symbol of death and resurrection. The Little Prince must be bitten by the serpent to die and be reborn, to leave the earth and return to his planet. In this fresco, interpretation remains free. Is he the super villain of the fable? Must she defend the sheep armed with her brush?
The wall is 65 meters long and 2 meters high. On the left side was reproduced a signature of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry that deliberately chosen not too readable.
The central character is divided into three parts which allows to zoom graphically to highlight the main and symbolic parts of the body. On the left the legs propelled by the rollers. In the centre the enigmatic face of the girl. On the right the arm and the brush.
It’s also a tip for an extremely horizontal composition. A 65-metre-by-2 wall is always difficult to compose. For the anecdote, the fresco was made in eight days with weather conditions, thunderstorm, which did not simplify things.
Heta hopes in this fresco, like the work of Saint-Exupéry the Little Prince, to have made a painting readable by children, thanks to the comic side of the sheep, the planets and the stars. But also as in all good fables.. An interesting fresco for adults…
