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The painting "Tuscan Wood" was inspired by Greg Mort's stay in Montepulciano, Italy during the fall of 1997. Mort noticed that many of his neighbors received daily deliveries of bundled kindling. He discovered that even in this comfortable town most of the villas were still heated primarily by wood. The sticks were a valued commodity and had to be brought into the town at great expense as most of the surrounding area had been completely cleared for vineyards. These simple sticks took on new meaning for the artist and subsequently have appeared in numerous paintings.
"Tuscan Wood" is a study in contrasts between the twisting rough surface of the wood juxtaposed against the smooth skin of the golden apples. Mort succeeds again in elevating commonplace objects to a position of reverence. The viewer is brought to a new level of awareness. The ordinary takes on a simple but extraordinary beauty.
The original watercolor painting of "Tuscan Wood" is in a private art collection in Boston, Massachusetts. The overall image size of the limited edition four color lithograph of "Tuscan Wood" is 22" X 26". It was printed on museum quality Mohawk Superfine eighty pound paper by the fine artisans of Westland Printers in Burtonsville, Maryland. Each piece is individually hand titled, numbered and signed by the artist. "Tuscan Wood" was published in a limited edition of only two hundred.
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