Marco hung a washing line across the top of this painting, and it changes everything.
Most pictures of Amalfi are taken from the water, or from the top of the stairs with the whole town laid out like a postcard. This one is from partway up the cathedral steps, one step below where you’d stand to take the photo. Somebody’s laundry is strung overhead. You are inside the town, not looking at it.
The one warm window
The sea behind the roofs has already gone dark. The sky is still orange, but it is losing. Terracotta, ochre and rose stack up the hillside and every one of those colours is cooling off as you look at them.
Then there is one lit window. Exactly one, and it is warmer than anything else in the frame. Your eye goes there and stays there, because that is the hour — the ten minutes when the lamps come on and the day tips over into evening.
Marco paints places after he leaves them, with a knife and far too much paint. The reflections in the water are thick dragged ridges. Ruby put it best: the surface rewards close viewing. So does the town.
What happens once it’s up
If you climbed those steps, you’ll say so out loud. If you’re going, this is what you’ll find at seven in the evening. Either way, people stop at it and ask, and you get to tell them.
Getting it on your wall
Canvas over solid wood, an inch and a quarter deep, image wrapping the edges — so it looks finished from the side too. It arrives stretched and ready to hang. One nail, no framer, no glass, no surprise bill. Matte, so a window opposite gives you the painting back instead of your own reflection.
The 20×16 (51 x 41 cm) is what most people choose, at $149, and it’s a high quality print of Marco’s digital work. There’s a smaller 14×11 and a wider 24×18 if your wall needs them. Free shipping in the continental US. It’s made when you order it, up to ten business days, which is also why nobody else on your street has this one.
One honest thing
It is a warm painting doing a cool thing. If your rooms are all white and steel, that orange sky will argue. Anywhere with wood, books or colour already in it, this settles in fast.
Take it home if it’s your town. Not sure yet? Have a look through the rest of Marco’s harbours — or follow him, and you’ll see the next one before it goes up.
