“I like to be here in Tuscany with Rina and Pulce,” says the Italian artist Lorenzo Mattotti, referring to his wife and their dog. Mattotti, who lives in Paris the rest of the year, continues, “Here in the country, we don’t see other houses around us—there aren’t really any. We’re on a hill and we see the sea in the distance. It’s a place where I like to pass the whole summer, a place where I can relax but also work. I don’t like to do nothing.”
“In Paris, I’m always pressed by phone calls, meetings, rendezvous. The time passes very quickly. Here, it’s very, very slow. I have time to reflect and to think, to make drawings—it’s very good. I’ve made many illustrations and paintings about the Tuscan landscape; it never fails to inspire me.”
See below for a slide show from Mattotti’s forthcoming book. His paintings of Hansel and Gretel inspired a retelling of the story by Neil Gaiman.
