In the Pyrenees, Jean-Jacques Abdallah, sculptor Sculptures et décoration en marbre et granit

In Arras-en-Lavedan, Jean-Jacques Abdallah is a renowned Pyrenean sculptor who works with Arudy marble stone from the neighboring Ossau valley.

I'm in the Val d'Azun at Arras-en-Lavedan in the Hautes-Pyrénées, close to the heart of the Pyrenees National Park.

The Val d'Azun is a very open, sunny valley. I entered the Tarbes School of Art at Jardin Massey in 1981. I originally went there to learn woodworking. It just so happened that the teacher there worked with stone.

The 1st^st job he gave me was engraving on soft stone. Then he gave me another stone to make a small bas-relief. And we never spoke of wood again. Neither he nor I. In 1995, I set up my workshop here, behind the family home where I grew up.

I work mainly with hard stone, marble and sometimes granite. I generally source my work from the marble quarries of Arudy, in the Ossau valley. My work is sculpture, animal sculpture, but not just that... I can also work on figures, much more contemporary pieces. And then there's a little more heritage work, where I make sinks, door lintels... My work is still very stylized, very geometric. I'm approaching cubism.

I organize sculpture workshops, either by the day or by the week.

I joined the Esprit parc national brand for several reasons. First of all, there are a lot of animals in the National Park, and I do a lot of them... And it's also to have a network of people who have more or less the same values as me.

My inspiration from local wildlife is not something I can explain... I think it's a bit natural, it comes from my environment, so naturally I go towards these animals.

I made my first bear in 1984, and in 1988 I made the bear in front of the Maison du Val d'Azun et du Parc National in Arrens, in response to a National Park competition. And by the way, it's still there! Every time I pass by, I come up to say hello!