Atmosfera

Atmosfera

160 x 100 cm oil on canvas

2020

Every now and then, unexpectedly, magically, the stars align and a painting comes along, out of nowhere, with no pre-conceived ideas or aim or desire. A painting I never imagined, dreamt, admired in another artist's creation, planned, or called into being.

It just arrives, like a lightening strike from the sky in the absence of thunder.

That is "Atmosfera". Painted on a whim, on a hot, light-hearted summer day.

"Atmosfera" was the centerpiece of my solo exhibition in 2020. It was the painting that sky-rocketed my presence on social media as an artist. It was the painting that literally everyone who laid eyes on it connected with. It was that most phenomenal thing. I have no idea how I made it!

It was a certain kind of magic.

"Atmosfera" was collected by a new collector in Tuscany, and lives in a beautiful villa in the Tuscan hills, in a proper setting for a painting so charmed.

Breathe

Breathe

100 x 160 cm oil on canvas

2020

"Breathe" is a revelation.

Sometimes when I am creating I get hopelessly attached to the outcome. Painting is not a process oriented on a goal. Painting (for me) is a state of mind, letting go of expectations and finding flow. It is incredibly liberating and also sometimes incredibly scary. It involves truly giving in.

This painting did not look at all like this when I conceived it. It was a burnt sienna hued, deep perspective, spacious view of what felt like a canyon. It was stuck, so stuck, because I had created a beautiful moving passage in the central part of the painting, and my fear of ruining it had paralyzed me as I tried to finish the rest of the canvas. I learned the "do not covet" rule so many years ago in art school. I coined the term and it keeps me on track... if I begin to covet any part of my work, a color, a brushstroke, a line, and then tiptoe around it for fearing of losing it, everything else falls apart. Hard. A metaphor for life.

So on that day when I realized I had fallen in the coveting trap, I turned around, walked outside and watched the sky and watered the flowers, and told myself to breathe and let go.

This painting is what happened next.

This is one of my finest works. It stands vertical and calls upon no landscape other than its own. Vertical paintings are for true art lovers, I think. It literally dances on the wall. It is now mounted at the bottom of a staircase and beckons you to sit on the top stairs and behold it. It changes with the light and time of day and your mood, and brings infinite moments for contemplation. It is serene. Frolicking. Wide open.

At the time of this writing, "Breathe" is available for collection in my Italy studio.

Can I come home for the summer?

Can I come home for the summer?

120 x 80 cm Acrylic, oil and pastels on canvas

2021

"Can I come home for the summer?" is a painting inspired by my yearning for home, a home in the earth and connection to place, a home I am searching for, a home full of green living things and water and dirt and birdsong.

I made this painting at a time in life when I feel an overwhelming desire to plant roots in the natural world, to live on a piece of land and pass the seasons and watch what I cultivate bloom and grow and die and come back again.

It is a blissful, serene, deep, long sigh of relief in a painting. I now have it hanging on my bedroom wall until it finds a forever home. It is my last sight when I fall asleep and the first when I awake, and it never fails to take me to a softer space in my mind and heart, a simple, serene space with a soft breeze and warm sky.

As I write this, "Can I come home for the summer?" is available for collection in my Italy studio.