Salento 4 Print

What struck me vividly during my stay in Salento, Italy, was its inner landscape. There, half-finished structures, roads that started out as asphalt and morphed into pebbly, dirt drives captivated my eyes. Architecturally, I marveled at the simplicity of the buildings, and thought of works by Cezanne and di Chirico. Cubes in chiaroscuro are what I saw all around, broken up only by bulbous, alien-like cactus formations (fichi d'India) or aged, twisted olive trees. I began to make perspective sketches, eyeing the linear shapes and their shadows. I also wanted to understand the design of the cactus, its truth, through drawing. Once inland from the seas, the palette deepened and lost its sparkling cloak. There were the neutral tones of the dry grasses and unwashed concrete buildings, punctuated by fig-green, rustic burgundy and pale purple. Finished villas popped out of the desolation like a desert flower – painted bright yellow, or candy blue, or happy green. The half-finished buildings and even the simplicity of the functioning ones felt like some kind of rough draft– I reveled in the Spartan surroundings for the unshowy beauty they could offer.