Mixed-media painting: a paper boat sails through a vivid cityscape of painted tiles, ornaments and script; the word Heureux is written along the lower edge, Arabic script flows across a deep blue wall.

No. 001 · Painting

Envers l'humanité

Michèle Reby

Mixed media · 2024 · 200cm x 100cm

A paper boat sets out across a city of painted tiles — fragments of ornament, script and colour that could belong to any coast of the Mediterranean, or to all of them at once. Along the lower edge stands a single French word: Heureux. Happy.

Across the deep blue wall flows Arabic script — an echo of maktub, “it is written”. Between the two words the painting holds its question open: is happiness something that is written for us, or something we fold, like the boat, with our own hands — and set on the water?

[Replace or extend this description together with the artist. Two to three short paragraphs; describe what can be seen, then what it asks.]