LUCY MACGILLIS

Lucy MacGillis (b.Pittsfield, MA 1977) grew up in the Berkshires, in Massachusetts. She then studied painting at the University of Pennsylvania with John Moore, and with Nicolas Carone at the former International School of Art in Montecastello di Vibio, Italy. There, she also studied with Ruggero Savinio, Jake Berthot, John Lees, Ying Li and Dan Gustin. Upon graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, MacGillis received a post-graduate grant to paint in Italy. She has been painting and drawing in Italy since 2000 where she lives with her son Vito and companion Piero Lanzanò in an old farmhouse she restored in Umbria.

In Italy, her painting has focused on creating a series of landscapes, interiors, and still-life paintings.  She has exhibited at the Hoadley Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts, Axelle Fine Arts in New York, the Haus der Kunst in Graz and at the Galleria Ca'd'Oro in Rome.

She teaches annual seminars in oil painting with traditional Italian earth colors in Italy, Germany, Austria, and in Florida and Massachusetts. Lucy MacGillis is represented in international private and corporate collections.

Artist Statement

As I continue to paint what I see, I find myself returning to the familiar, the surrounding landscapes which I know so well.  In Italy I have always been struck by the light.  Yet it is clear to me how fundamental the dark is, the contrast, light’s opposite.  I am also increasingly aware of Umbria’s dark side, the historical pessimism, the depression, not helped by the thick fog which often envelops the Tiber valley for weeks at a time during the winter. The cold tramontana, the north wind, eventually blows the fog away and brings the sun with it. The distant vistas return, the sun blazes, and the light’s intensity is overwhelming after the dark days.

These landscapes were painted directly from life in Montecastello di Vibio, from spots along the medieval walls where the morning light awakens the village.

Dick Muccini