In 1997, GRATALOUP undertook an important series on the theme of Deserts.

On his return from Lacanau, where Milena has just bought a small house on the seafront, he brings back to Paris sandbags collected on the beach. The sand of Lacanau is extremely fine, similar to a powder.

From that date, he frequently integrated it into his paintings,
thus enriching his pictorial technique.

In this series of Deserts, the sand is omnipresent and blends with the warm colors of the prism, yellow, orange and red, deserts.

This series includes a strong symbolic impact with, often, the presence of the tent of the Prophet. It is an evocation of the hermit, the hermitage, asceticism, silence, meditation.

"Sand is the smallest visual part possible. There is a correlation between this sand and the particle vision of what you can guess. These invisible particles suggest emptiness and fullness, for example for a human body. But it is also the relationship between the real and the invisible. It’s a metaphorical world."