I have definitely got a romantic side. Though all of the title is factually true. I own a lovely dark blue long dress, bought from a charity shop about 25 years ago ….and rarely worn. What better time for a bit of constructive imagination than to sit on the veranda outside the tower with a glass of wine enjoying the evening light and being suitably dressed.

I suppose everybody does stuff like that?

I remember when I was making a cottage garden. I lived in a cottage and I bought plants with romantic names… like ” love lies bleeding” and ” hollyhocks” and “dithering dillies”. ( the last turned out to be grass!!) I am pretty sure I had a straw hat but I was considerably hampered by lack of a trug. And I didn’t feel free enough at the time to have a long floaty dress. Not surprisingly my gardening was not terribly efficient….

Living in pisticci and becoming an artist who lived in a little village house, called a lammia and riding about on a scooter has definitely affected my choice of clothes… or maybe it’s just my age and time of life where I think ” who cares what other people think” and wear all the things I always dreamed about but didn’t have the courage to wear when I was younger.

But all I can say is that when I sit outside the tower, in the south of italy ,after a good days’s painting, wearing a long starry dress ,looking out over the valley as the sun goes down and drinking a glass of local red wine … it’s hard to think of a more perfectly romantic moment.

These are some of my latest paintings , some created at the tower and others in my little lammia in pisticci , including a few adjusted ones to be displayed in a winery.