The Saint-Martin Carnival festivities officially ended on Wednesday, but the 2026 edition will not end with the last parades; it will continue to live on through a canvas created during the Culturanza parade by Saint-Martin artist Claudio Arnell.
Cordered by l’Saint-Martin Carnival Festivities Association’The painting also bears traces left by passers-by and children who came to watch the launch parade.
You may have spotted him next to the stage during the parade of February 7thA masked man, an easel, a canvas illuminated by a spotlight, and all around him, a dozen children ready to paint and a few curious adults. Under the mask: the artist Claudio Arnell, who returned to the island in 2016 after studying art at the Sorbonne in Paris and the Beaux-Arts in Nice. Upon his return, for eight years he combined his artistic projects with teaching visual arts in various middle and high schools in the northern islands. His works are numerous: several murals in schools, an art project displayed on the walls of the Marigot cemetery, but also, the emblem of the Collectivity of Saint-Martin which he created on commission in 2010. Today, Claudio devotes himself mainly to creation, while keeping transmission at the heart of his work.
A participatory work
The carnival painting is a perfect example. Alongside the carnival participants who have come to present their troupe, about ten children are clustered around the easel, paintbrushes in hand: “I try to give free rein to their creativity, not to be too controlling, and to let their impulses flow onto the canvas,” explains Claudio, never far from his role as teacher, advising the children when necessary. In the center of the canvas is the emblem of the Carnival association, a mask surrounded by feathers: “It’s important for the public to recognize things, so I started the project like that, I did the basics and then the children took over (laughs),” the painter recounts two weeks later.
“The painting was originally flat on the canvas, and then they added layer upon layer, and I find it telling that they’re the ones who bring volume, substance, and texture. Now it’s up to me to work with what they’ve given me,” he says. With this painting, created in “collaboration” with dozens of little hands, Claudio has taken up the challenge of representing a dynamic event like Carnival by entrusting the paintbrush to those who experience it most intensely: the children.
Spontaneity at the heart of the project
Beyond being a unique moment of transmission and cultural heritage, the carnival is deeply linked to childhood since they “have precisely this spontaneity that is already present in the event,” argues the artist, who was also able, through this performance, to rediscover himself: “This year, with this work, it was a form of reconnection, to this past and to this heritage.”
Claudio plans to continue this collaboration in the coming years, hopefully with other visual artists. Next year, he hopes to bring to fruition an idea that has remained unrealized: to paint while marching alongside the dancers and musicians, and to make the commemorative painting a tradition “so that painting and visual art can be placed on the same level as music and dance during Carnival.” _DR
Instagram: @artnellco
Source: Faxinfo https://faxinfo.fr/en/portrait-mettre-le-carnaval-en-peinture-le-defi-de-lartiste-claudio-arnell/
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