Scenic Italian Views

Scenic Italian Views

What is the line between capturing something beautiful and it becoming sentimental? Is there one?
Thanks to all the Anglo-Saxons who came before us spending their holidays and even entire lives in exotic Italy, there can be the tendency to romanticize life and capture only the most idyllic settings.

It’s easy to see why- everywhere you turn now seems like a postcard. The warm Mediterranean light, and in this case the rolling hills stretched out before us, just seemed like an opportunity for a painting not to be missed. Rather than get overly intellectual and ask myself “is this too much like a postcard?” I saw this moment with the dark foreground, lit background, the popping reds of the geraniums and instinctively set up to paint it.

View from the Porch, Umbria
Oil on Linen Panel
9 x 12″
$600 | Available

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As a painter composing is everything- almost. The frame we choose to show our viewer says everything about how we see the world and we want to share that view with you.

For me I want to share “my Italy” with you- from the everyday street scenes to the more picturesque spots from wherever I get the chance to travel.
Some of my scenes may be sentimental, romanticizing or exaggerating the beauty that is Italy. Some of my other paintings try to capture and document a time and place, especially in the ever-changing landscape of Rome.

All of my paintings though are choices in color, light, shadow and subject matter. I often leave people and cars out of my work- they are not what I am interested in and so I don’t feel that they are essential or will add anything to the painting.

Though I’m sure that my work will change and evolve through time, the scenes I paint and in turn am excited to show with others, is a shared love of Italy and its bright vivacious life, light and culture.