Bierenbroodspot in the Tuscany-wide lockdown Winter 2020

A bird’s eye view of Fragments of a Future City which I am building in my Tuscan studio, not very far from Carrara, where they quarry the luminous white marble. The shiniest pieces are of this marble, chosen for the heads and masks of gods; between  them lie broken columns and fragments of blocks carved from alabaster, a local stone; and chunks of malachite for eyes that gaze at you from a faraway past -- like that godhead almost fallen off the lower right. I splash red ochre across the whiteness, bringing the stones to life just as the  Etruscans used that colour to animate their ancient tombs. I am working on Fragments of a Future City during the Tuscany-wide lockdown that hit us right after the olive harvest. There is time for that now – and for new reflections. Eleven new paintings will be coming out of lockdown, too, like nothing I have ever done before. Winter 2020.