Lago Albano and Castel Gandolfo sit just minutes from where I live. I’ve walked that crater rim in every season, watched the light do different things to the water at every hour of the day — sometimes silver, sometimes a deep jade, sometimes that impossible turquoise that makes you stop and stare.

And I keep painting it. Not because I haven’t captured it yet — though there’s always that feeling — but because it genuinely is different every time. Each painting is an attempt to hold one specific moment: this particular afternoon, this exact quality of light on the water, the old town sitting up on the ridge just so.

What I want to give you is that feeling of being there. The stillness of the volcanic lake, the history of Castel Gandolfo looking down over it all, the warmth of the Castelli Romani air. I’m not painting a postcard view. I’m painting a place I love, over and over, because I haven’t run out of things to say about it.

— LeAnne