Discover the Beauty of Puglia Through Original Art

This work is inspired by a stay near the town of Cisternino in a traditional Pugliese trullo. Trulli—conical, stone-roofed dwellings unique to the region—are among Puglia’s most distinctive architectural forms, with their origins thought to date back to local Stone Age culture. Built without mortar, their whitewashed cylindrical walls are formed from carefully balanced circles of grey stone, rising to a pinnacle crowned by symbolic finials. Today, trulli are protected by Italian law as national monuments, with the greatest concentration found in Alberobello, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Set against this enduring architecture, the painting focuses on a pomegranate tree growing in the extensive grounds of the trullo where I stayed. Laden with ripening fruit and painted in rich, warm reds and layered greens, the branches animate the foreground, offering a vivid contrast to the sun-bleached stone arches and the quiet solidity of the building behind. The pomegranate—long associated with abundance, fertility, and continuity—felt inseparable from the place itself and demanded to be both photographed and painted.

Through the interplay of organic growth and ancient structure, the work seeks to capture the timeless beauty, warmth, and quiet poetry of rural Puglia.