Paris

Paris 

huile sur toile, 100 x 100 cm. Coll. particulière

à Carlos Pradal 

I was crossing the garden of the Palais Royal in Paris when a flock of pigeons fought over a leftover sandwich abandoned in one of those park garbage cans with a metal corolla stretched over a transparent plastic bag to prevent terrorist attacks. Something like a flower of gray-blue pigeons. The carefully raked ground reflected the light: little or no shadow but birds, each for themselves, to get their share of the cake. Few colors, all in value. Which is quite Parisian, to use a phrase from Vian. In the lower right, on the ground, you can see a billiard chalk. One of those blue chalks used to prepare cue tips. A more scrutinizing glance sees a hint of red and a hint of yellow at the bottom of the trash can: it could well be billiard balls. That’s why this painting greets my late friend, the painter Carlos Pradal. He worked in series. He painted a series of pigeons and another of billiard players. And this little blue chalk, as he taught me, balances the painting.