There is a special person I know called Nanda. She’s an agronomist and owns a Mediterranean plant center called “Vivaio 98.3 Piante Mediterranee” in the city of Tarquinia, just outside Rome. Her husband Sergio works in Agriculture and owns a company that produces fresh fruit and vegetable. So, it’s not a surprise that the core of Nanda’s family household is food and gardening. She has an amazing kitchen with clean white walls, gray granite counters, a large wood burning oven. It’s a light and airy space with large windows and a high ceiling; a place where one can sit and stare for hours. One of the things I love about her kitchen is that she always has a garlic braid hanging somewhere. There is something about the intricacy of these braids that fascinates me, and I was inspired to capture their elegance in a painting.