Violet Before the Stars – Marco Bellini | Fine Art Print

Violet has got into everything here. The water, the whitewash, the gaps between the houses. This is the ten minutes after the blue goes and before the stars turn up, and Marco has let that one colour run the whole picture.

You are looking across the caldera at Santorini, houses stacked above dark water, the sky still holding a little warm orange at the top before it drowns in deep blue. The reflections are laid in as broad slabs and dragged strokes of colour, so the water reads as shapes rather than ripples.

The one warm thing in it

Find the taverna lamp. It is small, and it is the only warm light in the entire painting – every other window has gone cool. That is the decision. Marco always puts exactly one light in warmer than the rest, and once you have seen it you cannot look at the rest of the picture without your eye sliding back there. As Ruby put it: “The warm glow of the lamp captivates within cool twilight tones, ensuring enduring visual interest.”

Notice too where you are standing. Not up on the famous terrace. One step down an alley, one table back, slightly in the way. He paints places after he has left them, which is why they come out better than they were.

Once it is up

It reads from across the room, because cool and warm sitting that close together always does. Anyone who has been to that island will name it before they get to you. Anyone going will start talking about dates.

Getting hold of it

A high quality print of a digital artwork on museum-grade archival matte paper – smooth and non-reflective, so a lamp or a window opposite gives you the violet back instead of a glare. Printed edge to edge with no white border, so it looks right pinned up bare, or drop it straight into a frame you already own.

Landscape. Most people take the 24 x 18 in (61 x 46 cm) at $49, and it is preselected. The 16 x 12 in is $29 for a shelf or a narrow bit of hallway, the 32 x 24 in is $69 if the wall is wide. Made to order and rolled in a tube, free shipping within the continental US. Up to ten business days to make, because nothing is sitting in a warehouse waiting for you.

One honest thing

It is a dim picture. Beautiful, but dim – twilight, not sunshine. If you wanted the bright blue-domes-and-white-walls midday Santorini, this is the other end of the same day.

If that hour is the one you remember, take it home. If you want to see more first, Marco has a whole coastline of harbours at lamp-lighting time – or follow him, and the next one lands in front of you before anyone else.

One is a piece. Two is a set. Three is a collection.

Almost nobody stops at one. A second work by the same hand turns a wall into a pairing. A third turns it into something you chose rather than something you bought. There are 6 other works by Marco Bellini available.

Beacon Through Mist – Marco Bellini | Digital Download$19Two Glasses Cooling – Marco Bellini | Fine Art Print$29 – $69Price range: $29 through $69Foam Dissolving Copper – Marco Bellini | Digital Download$19Bell Counting Last – Marco Bellini | Fine Art Print$129 – $229Price range: $129 through $229Masts Rising Through Vapour – Marco Bellini | Digital Download$19Kiosk Glowing Amber – Marco Bellini | Fine Art Print$29 – $69Price range: $29 through $69