The coast near Santa Cesarea Terme has a different pace from Puglia’s harbour towns. Here a solitary tower gives the open landscape a point of focus.
In my painting of Minervino Tower, I was drawn to the meeting of an old built form with a much less orderly foreground. The stone rises above vegetation and the Adriatic air seems to get into everything. There is room around the subject, which is part of why it works on paper.
A landmark with space around it
A tower can tempt a painter into careful construction: one edge, then another, until the landscape becomes secondary. I wanted the opposite balance. The tower needed enough structure to hold the composition, while the surrounding sky and ground were allowed to feel open.
Coastal landmarks have a practical history, but this painting is less an account of that history than of what it feels like to see one standing apart against light. From a distance, a small shift in its silhouette can carry the whole scene.
Wildflowers, stone and the Adriatic palette
The first Minervino Tower painting keeps the relationship between tower, coast and sky simple. In Minervino in Wildflowers, the foreground becomes more active. Those looser marks give the solid stone something to resist.
View Minervino in Wildflowers and choose a print →
Watercolour makes this contrast possible with relatively little explanation. A broad, light wash can hold the sky. Broken marks suggest plants without naming every stem. The tower can be given a few firmer edges, while its less important sides dissolve into the surrounding colour.
A different Puglia coast
Compare this quieter stretch with the boats and enclosed water of Monopoli harbour. Both are Adriatic subjects, yet the compositional questions are almost reversed. At Monopoli I look for order within a busy harbour; here I look for a single anchor in an open scene.
See both paintings in the Santa Cesarea Terme collection, then follow the wider Puglia paintings and A Painter’s Guide to Puglia. A place does not need a crowded view to stay in the memory. Sometimes one tower and the air around it are enough.