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LESLIE EHRIN FINE ART
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Sunflower Meadows on the Road to San Gimignano © Leslie Ehrin 2005-2008
When I left Florence at 4pm on the Vespa, to set off for Tuscany, I drove straight south through the Chianti Region at sunset. The ride through the vineyards was so exhilarating that I became preoccupied with scenery and taking pictures to the point that I completely forgot the time, and forgot about getting gas and forgot finding a hotel for the night. At 8:55p.m., just as darkness fell, the red gas tank light went on as I was atop a hill overlooking the lights of farm houses coming on throughout the neatly ordered patchwork landscape of Chianti. I coasted downhill to a village and found the only gas station in town closed for the night. People were gathering in the town center, chatting and drinking wine, and sitting outside in a restaurant dining. Sensing my dismay at being out of gas, those nearby pointed and waved toward a Convent, further down the road, and indicated that I should plan to spend the night there. When I arrived, pushing the Vespa up the driveway, two Sisters, one Korean and one Spanish, greeted me at the gate and admitted me, without a word spoken. Neither of them spoke English and my Korean and Spanish skills were non existent. Despite the language barrier, they understood my need for a room and they provided me a lovely one with a view looking toward San Gimignano. In the morning, when I awoke, a blaze of yellow light and bold rolling hillsides greeted me, resplendent with yellow sunflowers blooming and the City on the Hill beckoned peach colored in the morning sun. The intensity of color in the widespread vast vista of vibrant yellows glowing in the morning light, made me realize that I would be painting very large paintings of this area that delt with the color Yellow. The original "Sunflower Meadows On The Road to San Gimignano" is three feet by five feet, in dimension and very thickly impastoed because I wanted to paint not only what I saw that morning but the way the texture of the landscape felt from that vantage point, during my first glimpse of San Gimignano from the Convent where I ran out of gas.
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Original Sold - Prints Available
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