Peña, Lake Avandaro

This is one of the few paintings I've made of a specific, real place. My soon-to-be husband and I trekked up to see Lake Avandaro, near Valle de Bravo in Mexico. I'll be honest - once I'd caught my breath from the climb, I immediately lost it again. The view was that stunning.

What you're looking at here is that moment translated into gold leaf and paint. The gnarled, silvered branches in the foreground stand in stark, linear contrast against a sky and lake rendered almost entirely in gold - that shimmering, unbroken expanse is meant to hold the same breathlessness I felt standing there. Below, the rock face is built up with thin, translucent washes on linen, closer to watercolor than to heavy paint, giving the stone a soft, almost weathered quality against all that gold.

It's a painting about a real place, but also about what it feels like to be stopped in your tracks by beauty - that particular kind of quiet that happens right before you remember to keep breathing.