24 × 20” acrylic on canvas
Framed in gold and silver frame with gold inset
Painted in 2026; exhibited at The Chiesa di Santamaria di Portosanto, Naples, Italy, July 2026.

In this landscape painting, the atmosphere and evening light feel mysterious and spiritual, emanating from the moonlight and the land itself, as the thick impasto textures remind me that thousands of years of history are held within the rich soil beneath the land’s patterned surface. My Tuscan landscapes are about how we are connected to land, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Nature can heal or destroy; for me, the Tuscan landscape represents healing and regeneration of the spirit.

This painting was completed in 2026, after being started in 2021 with a different palette so there is a painting beneath the painting on the surface. The composition is typical of those I originally employed after being inspired by my solo trip through Tuscan hilltowns on a Vespa in 1998, when I rode from Florence through the Chianti region to San Gimignano and Volterra, then to Colle di Val d’Elsa, Siena, Montepulciano, and on to Rome. My experience of literally “feeling the road” on a Vespa during my journey, combined with my first encounter with the sfumato atmospheric effects of Tuscan light and air, alongside the textures and patterns woven into the Tuscan landscape, compelled me to create numerous Tuscan landscape paintings reflecting different times of day, changing seasons, and weather conditions. During that journey, I stayed at the Convent in San Gimignano, which elevated my awareness of our spiritual connection to the land beneath our feet.

As a student of art history, my work reflects many artists’ devices. From Rembrandt, I borrowed the idea of entering the painting over a sloping hillside, seen in the shrubbery in the lower-right corner, and used the compositional structure similar to Cézanne’s paintings, where strong diagonals pull the viewer in a zigzag pattern through the landscape to a high horizon line in the distance. The high horizon line lifts the viewer’s eyes upward, suggesting the spiritual achievement of striving to reach the highest point in the landscape and ultimately in oneself. The thick impasto landscape textures are reminiscent of Van Gogh’s fields. The color palette reflects a combination of influences ranging from 12th-century medieval paintings to the juxtaposition and pairing of complementary colors, as in the work of pre- to post-Impressionist painters such as Monet, Vuillard, and Bonnard. Making color “sing” is one of the elements I strive to achieve in my work, as well as reflecting the Divine within the landscape through light and color.

My paintings are about reinvention: of the land and of oneself. With land, rebirth happens every season by layering the soil with fertilizer and water, planting new crops, cyclically allowing the land to rest, and regrowing the following season. My first trip to Italy taught me that regeneration of the spirit can happen through resting and rejuvenating the soul, through travel and exploration. Through travel, like other spiritual pursuits, we can expand our horizons to reach the highest and best versions of ourselves.