Time and Terrain: Along the Côte d’Azur is a body of work conceptualized and developed by Linda Martinello during her 2022 residency with La Napoule Art Foundation in France, in collaboration with the Fondation David R. Graham. The Canadian Artist Residency program supports cross-cultural exchange between Canada and France, fostering connections between artists, institutions, and place-based inquiry.

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Working from a studio within the 14th-century Château de La Napoule—situated along the Mediterranean coast in the commune of Mandelieu-la-Napoule—Martinello immersed herself in an environment defined by contrasts: between sea and mountain, calm and movement, permanence and flux. Daily walks along the coastline and hikes through the hillside forests of Mont San Peyre became rituals of observation and translation. Through these repeated routes, she studied the changing light across the Esterel Mountains and Bay of Cannes, learning to anticipate the subtle shifts that animate the region’s terrain.

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Particularly resonant was the interplay of the red iron-rich cliffs of the Alpes-Maritimes and the turquoise of the Mediterranean waters—an elemental duality that underpins much of the work in this series. Across sites such as the Calanques de Cassis, the Phoenician’s Footpath, and the Gorge du Cians, Martinello engaged with landscapes shaped by geological time and human history, where ancient paths, quarries, and ruins trace the interrelation of nature and culture.

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In the studio, this research evolved into a process of material and perceptual translation. Through layered compositions that merge drawing, oil paint, and graphite on mylar, Martinello constructs a visual language attuned to the shifting interplay of light, texture, and topography. The resulting works traverse the space between observation and imagination—evoking the Côte d’Azur not as a singular image, but as a living record of time, terrain, and sensory experience.