"Terraza"

A 12" X 16" acrylic, painted on a grey, damp day under the cover of mats and vines on the Terraza at Selva, our home for ten days in the Tenuta di Forci, in Italy.

"Pig Cabin" and "Lemon Tree"

In May, I taught a painting workshop in Tuscany, in the mountains above Lucca. 

Creating art in Italy is difficult.

How do I sort out my sense of overwhelm?

How do I cut through the burdensome sense of history, artistic masterpieces, nostalgia, cliché, movies I've seen, books I've read?

How do I make my experience more immediate? And should I?

Everything is so beautiful - where is the real world? Do I want to find it?

Is this like diabetic shock? Sugar overload?

As luck would have it, it rained  six and one half days out of ten - beauty problem solved, which gave rise to another. Who would believe grey paintings of Tuscany in May?

"Hiding"

One of my newest paintings is this 30" X 40" acrylic titled "Hiding". The image came to me walking along the magical paths of Hudson Gardens, a botanic gardens in Littleton, Colorado, just south of Denver. Tall grasses obstructed my view of the lilly pond, creating a sensation of seeking without being quite fulfilled. I like the ambiguities inherent in the name, "Hiding".