"Revel in the arts." - Analects of Confucius
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Two children flying kites by the oak tree at Prati Piani in the Ligurian Riviera

When you leave the mediterranean coast on the Italian Riviera and head inland through the Valle Argentina on your way to Triora - the last documented witch cove of medieval times - you reach Prati Piani. The area is quite flat allowing it to host an August bank holiday kite flying festival. The festival is especially popular with locals coming from Imperia to Ventimiglia to picnic on the grass amongst the olive trees and woodlands. Matthew has done a number of drawings and watercolours in Prati Piani over the years. The tree and the two figures were created in sepia using a reed pen and washes of colour.

The work of art is significant as the artist later incorporated it into a major oil canvas, one of the most important landscape paintings to come out of the Principality of Monaco in recent years. In this later painting, entitled 'Monaco Mon Amour,'* one of the young kite flyers have been transported from Prati Piani to stand below the sheer rock and stone defense walls of the Rock of Monaco near Place d'Armes flying his kite beside a somewhat similar tree.

* http://www.artmontecarlo.com/image_details.php?painting_id=523

Flowers and Trees are available for book illustrations, annual reports, paper and packaging, giftware, related products. You can license them in the following format: Original transparencies in 6 x 6 cm. (2¼ in.) format, high-resolution RGB drum scans on DVD or efficient and quick E-Mail or FTP upload.