z SOLD ~ Ulivo nel Campo Olive Tree Tuscan Farm Painting

    Acrylic on Wood Panel   ~~  SOLD  July 2023     45 x 60 cm (23.6 x 17.7 inches)     Private Collection, Virginia Ulivo nel Campo [Olive Tree in the Field]     I started this portrait of an olive tree just after I passed the written part of the Italian driver's license exam.  I found that exam a challenge [that has lasted most of 2018 as I tried to get over the language barrier] and this painting was a great stress-release and 'welcome back to work' celebration.      I have always had a spiritual connection with trees.  My mother would always look outside and up when it was time to call me home when I was a child.  I would sit in the trees for hours, quietly thinking, observing, listening.  The olive trees, at least in Tuscany, have such unique shapes and twisted, gnarly branches and sometimes even torn and hollowed out trunks that they have always seemed like individual personalities.     Maybe it is true that nearness breeds fondness.  I have watched the trees here, this one i