Le Figuier de Barbarie

Mixed media, acrylic paint and photo transfer assemblage on canvas, 42 x 48.”

During a 3-week art residency in Maussane, France, in May 2024, I photographed and painted prickly pear cacti, called “Figuier de Barbarie” in French, growing in the low-lying Alpilles mountains. Otherworldly and strange, the prickly pear cactus is a curious plant with delicate flower buds nestled between spiny daggers on its paddles.

It is a plant I know well from living in Western Colorado. Adaptable to both southern France and Colorado, the prickly pear cactus can grow in rugged alpine terrain and semi-arid conditions with high heat in the summer and cold temperatures in the winter. Witnessing the resilience of this cactus, surviving and thriving on two different continents on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, makes me want to paint it again and again to bring awareness to its unique qualities and strength.