Artists Magazine - USA (2020-04)

ArtistsNetwork.com 65

O

live trees roll across the hills in the

background, and roses weave across the

fence along the dirt road that leads to

the studio of Lucy MacGillis, located in

the Italian region of Umbria. A palette

table caked with remnant paint dries in

the sun. The trees rustle in the breeze,

and the dirt from the fields floats across the gravel to the

door of the old stone building where the artist lives and

paints. This landscape makes nature prominent, and so it

seems fitting that MacGillis is dedicated to using natural

earth pigments in her paintings.

PA S S IO N

for

PIGMENTS

Lucy MacGillis mixes her own paints from natural substances, giving her

work an elemental connection to the Umbrian landscapes she depicts.

by C.J. Kent

FROM LABORATORY

TO STUDIO

MacGillis hadn’t always aspired to

become an artist. Certainly, she drew

and painted as a child, but she also

volunteered through high school at

a pathology laboratory in Pittsfield,

Mass., producing glass slides for study.

Her German mother sent her “back

home” for a summer where she did

an internship at the University of

Würzburg in a tumor-research

ABOVE

La Collina dei

Ciliegi

oil on linen, 35½ x71

OPPOSITE

Il Tevere

oil on linen, 39x32