Title: Sunset at the Villa
Year: 2022
Size: 21 1/8 x 29 3/16 x 5 inches
Technique: Oil on Arches Oil Paper imported from France - Contemporary Romantic Impressionism

Roxy is the Resident Artist at Gershon Bachus Vintners, a Tuscany- inspired Villa that is home to a boutique winery specializing in Dry Red Wines that boast a 92pt-98pt rating from Wine Enthusiast Magazine. It rests atop a hill of grapevines in the heart of Temecula Wine Country on the DePortola Wine Trail. Many weddings are held here to take advantage of the spectacular views.

The patio at GBV is the place to be at Sunset. Even the employees gravitate to this spot in late after-noon to appreciate this view and are reluctant to leave. As the day begins to slip away, it is as if the dark blue of night pushes down on the earth forcing the orange and yellow from the setting sun down into the vines and casting a reflective glow across the soil that bounces back off of the sky down onto the ground and then twinkles back up again from the gravel patio.

Instead of drawing the viewer in from the bottom to a specific point in the painting as an artist would normally do to create perspective, Roxy chose direction brushstrokes in vibrant blues to grab the eye first, directing the view to the top back of the scene leading the eye to the center and down through the vines in the painting toward the front. The highlights on the gravel reflect up, silently directing the view back to the sky in a revolving circle through the painting like a conversation you are trying to leave but keep getting sucked back into which is what happens on this patio! We are talking and drinking extraordinary wine, enjoying this spectacular view and the setting sun and we know we should go but it is so relaxing and we are having such a good time that we stay until the very last mo-ment.

Sunset at the Villa was designed with the intention of conveying the magical atmosphere that develops each day on the patio as the sun begins to disappear over the mountains and the idea that a person could hang the painting on a wall at home and every time, he looks at it, feel like he was standing right there. The artwork would literally pull him in and induce a quiet calm for a few moments that would clear his mind of all stress before he went about his day again.

Roxy wants any person in the world to be able to place this on a wall in their home and escape to this location whenever they need a few moments of peace. Can you taste the golden glow?