"“Move along”" Painting

Sabina Puppo is a contemporary oil painter whose work tells painted stories from underland to open sky. Each landscape begins with a sweeping sky that unifies an imagined place, then gathers rolling hills and mountains, wandering streams, farmsteads, grazing flocks, ancient trees, and small human figures moving through the land. A view beneath the surface often opens to reveal roots and rock layers, the hidden life that holds a landscape together.

Her canvases unfold through sgraffito, a technique in which she draws back into wet oil to reveal line and texture beneath the surface, a practice rooted in her early years drawing in ink. The process is instinctive rather than planned. She rarely knows where a painting will lead until her hand and brush find it.

In 2026 she presented "Symphony in Green," a solo exhibition at The Arts Club of Washington curated by Dr. Brandon Fortune, Chief Curator Emerita of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Hosted in the former home of President James Monroe, the exhibition explored humanity's relationship with the natural world, and the artist donated her proceeds to Earthjustice. Writer and artist Caleb Ives Bach, who introduced the exhibition catalog, has described her work as a salve for the soul. Her next solo exhibition opens at Barns of Rose Hill in Berryville, Virginia, in 2027.

Puppo is the seventh generation of artists in her family and lives in the Virginia Piedmont, overlooking a 1740s farmstead. Samsung has selected her paintings for The Frame collection through its partnership with Saatchi Art. Her work is held in private collections on every continent, and her public sculpture "Sabina's Heart" stands in the garden of the Thomas Balch Library in Leesburg.