GO TO ITALY expecting to find aesthetic adventure and that absolute joy in life known everywhere as la dolce vita. It takes my breath away to see the splendor of shadows across the Val d'Orcia, the ochre fields of wheat, the blaze of poppies setting fire to a hillside, the serene outline of a distant hill against the yellow sky. Invited by strangers to share a table at a crowded restaurant, I am charmed by these gentle children of the sun and their appetite for life. Exploring their hamlets and hill towns, I feel as if I am lost to time-I feel as if I am at home.

My painting reflects my passion for the sun-drenched Tuscan region, with its sensual colors and wild landscapes. My interior vision is formed by touching and tasting its objects, its history, its landscapes. I try to capture the power of place to change hearts, as my heart was changed by the sensual paradise of Tuscany.

I feel its charm in my studio, where the humid stillness of lake and garden are lightened with music by Rossini. Italy returns to my senses in vivid color and texture: the rugged countryside rising in gel and paint, the soft geometry of Tuscan vineyards re-born in rhythmic modules, each linked to the next by color and shape. I remember Italy as D.H.Lawrence once did, recalling its "sun-substance," savoring the ... tawny grass and scrub, browny-green spires of cypresses, and then the mist of gray-green olives fuming down to the lakeside."