Sucker for a starving artist

We couldn't say no. 

Isabella Bise has a tiny shop off the main street running through Pienza. Each time we go by she is there, covered in paint, working on a Tuscan landscape. Today we walked in and she told us something about each of the 8 or 10 paintings currently in the shop. She apologized that the lighting didn't quite do justice to the vibrant colors, so she took most of them off the gallery walls and brought them outside so we could see them in natural lighting. 

Some were still wet and smelled of linseed oil. She had sticky, paint covered fingers and tried gingerly not to touch the fronts of the pictures. 

She worked so hard to make the sale, the better lighting, the little anecdotes, the reduced prices, and so now we own three works by Isabella.