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Even after the school closed, she
stayed in Monte Castello di Vibio,
where she’d built a life.
“Italy felt right,” she explains. She
had representation in the United
States and teaching opportunities in
Europe. She had a son and a cat. She
owned a red Vespa that got her around.
The location also offered advantages
to her art-making. In the mornings,
then as now, if the weather is beauti-
ful, she might go to the minuscule
central piazza with an overlook view
that stretches for miles and sketch
a landscape that has never grown old.GOING NATURAL
Italy also introduced MacGillis to
natural pigments. While working at
the International School, she found
some samples and enjoyed experi-
menting with them. They offered a
lushness and control that tube paint
didn’t allow. More significantly, she
discovered that making paints from
pigments was much more affordable
than purchasing ready-made paints.
Slowly but surely, she converted. For
nearly 10 years now, MacGillis has
rarely used any paints except her own
handmade mixtures.
MacGillis is surprised at how few
artists have considered returning to
the natural pigments used histori-
cally, ones taken directly from soil and
rock. She describes the visceral nature
of looking at the world and wanting to
turn it into paint: “It’s such a primal“It’s such a primal
gesture—taking a rock
and leaving a mark with
it on another rock. When
I walk through this
landscape, I’m constantly
fi nding stones on the
ground of beautiful
earth colors that make
me want to paint.”—LUCY MACGILLISItalian warm earth pigment