In Piazza del Campo a Siena

What grabs me immediately about this painting are the buildings; their neat, straight shapes and their warm colors. Next, I see the movement-blurred people, more shapes than personalities. They are part of the landscape as much as the building, as if a part of this place, intrinsically, is that people are here. It's the portrait of a place, not a building or a person. That wide view is something I admire greatly because I have difficulty painting it.

The painting has an impressive sense of scale. The men closest have facial features. The people in the back are merely black dots next to tiny red-and-black squares. I notice that you merely leave the female faces blank. This subtly suggests the more delicate facial features.

The sense of distance, the idea that you can keep on looking back and back and back, is what really makes me feel I have room to breathe. I could step into the painting.

Even behind the towering orange buildings, there are yellow-and-violet buildings. Everything has more than one layer.

The space is divided so well on this painting. You have only a tiny slice of pale-washed sky, and that seems natural.

Overall, this is a beautiful painting with an exquisite sense of light and shadow.