The Garden of Eden in the Valley of the Temples
The Garden of the Kolymbetra in Agrigento at the #ItaliaGrandSketchingTour
Today I’m the famous Valley of the Temples near Agrigento, a magical place where you can be face to face with Ancient Greek history and culture. What I didn’t know is that within the valley there is a lost paradise. Lost and recovered 20 years ago thanks to the Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI).
During the Greek time the water were collected here for the needs of the Valley and later on it became a garden that since the XIX Century was completely abandoned by the state. Twenty years ago an illuminated agronomist with FAI acquired the right to manage this area and since then it was transformed in a paradise, full of all kind of trees treated biologically and from which they create delicious jams and marmalade that I completely fell in love with.
A part from the food, the place itself is incredible. Walking inside this natural labyrinth was like losing myself in magic and going deeply into myself, into a relaxed state in which beauty is completely filling the heart. As an artist, instead, this place was hard, I wanted to capture everything and I was scared not to be able to show all this beauty.
Just start!
But at the end I took advice from a friend that told me: just start!
It is true, the first step is the hardest. After you start living in the moment and you follow the intuition, letting your hands go. I’m satisfied, I like the result, and I loved the process, so I can only be very happy!
While painting a family with two kids passed by and the girl, that was 3 or 4 years old, stopped to watch me paint and she didn’t want to live at all. I find so refreshing to see how kids are fascinated by drawing and painting and arts in general. It shows how our soul aspire to this form of communication. In opposition, most of the adults that stop to look at me, tell me that they wish they could do it. And I realize how much we limit ourselves in the things that we really long to do, pushed by a world that only wants results. And I speak for experience. For me it is still so hard many times to just start drawing because my head requires the security of a result, forgetting that life is about the process, about the journey.
Title of the painting ‘The Garden of the Kolymbetra in Agrigento’
This is a painting from the Italia Grand Sketching Tour Collection, a series of original ink and watercolor paintings done on location during my tour to discovery the marvelous Italian heritage. All paintings are also available as numbered and originally signed prints.
The painting is also featured in the book about my motorbike Italian tour. By acquiring this work you will get to know better Italy also thanks to a personalized story about this place that I will include in the package.
Painting information:
- Watercolor and ink on white paper
- Size 19 x 28.5 cm (7.5 x 11.2 inches)
- Shipped in a box
- Certificate of authenticity will be sent with the painting
