Interventions in the Field
The luminous yellow gestures perform as architectural interventions—insertions into a pre-existing terrain. They disrupt the pastoral continuity of the landscape, creating zones of attention and questioning the neutrality of nature.
The painting proposes that each field is already a site of layered histories, actions, and constructions.
The Weight of the Sky
The sky settles heavily onto the land, compressing distance and time. Light filters through layered atmospheres, revealing the landscape as a continuous process—formed, eroded, and renewed by passing weather.
At the Shift of the Morning
This piece reflects the liminal space between night and day — a threshold where perception changes and forms emerge differently.
‚At the Shift of the Morning‘ examines how light transforms our sense of place.
Acrylic on bord 15 x 15 cm
Collected (sold)
Nature and Art focused Retreats
At the Santa Maria Farmhouse in Southern Tuscany, I offer nature and art focused Day-Workshop Retreats. Experience the quiet rhythm of Tuscany through gardening and creative exploration in a farmhouse setting.
Retreats 2026 to be announced soon
Tuscany
Nature is intrinsically local and grounds us in space and time. In the landscape of Tuscany, we can observe a delicate balance between the cultivated and the natural. The natural providing thresholds and borders between the cultivated.
Paintings in Oil
Oil paint holds light in a way no other medium can replicate. Its slow drying time allows for sustained working and reworking. The surface retains a luminous depth that rewards close looking.
These are the most directly observational works in the practice — made in response to specific places and specific moments of light: not just what the eye sees but what the whole body registers — the smell of warm earth, the movement of air, the shift of colour as the hour changes.
Oil allows me to follow that experience slowly.
Enquiries welcome → kristienring.com/acquisition-enquiries
Nothing found.
Kristien Ring
Garden Design: Casetta Santa Maria,Tuscany
Santa Maria Toscana aims to create a place to experience self-sustaining organic gardening and cooking, together with creative arts activities. The house has been renovated and the barn structure converted to studio spaces for creative arts activities.
The design of the gardens focused on creating new edible, medicinal and flower gardens that complement the surrounding built and natural environment. The creation of natural spatial transitions, the definition of zones and specific spaces as well as water management were the key challenges.
Each garden area has a different character and relation to the surrounding landscape. Two new main patios were created to serve the house and studio as adjacent outdoor spaces. At the studio the small garden is peaceful, shaded and contained. The front of the house has an expansive panorama view across the olive orchard and the fields and valleys beyond—the terrace extending the entire length.
A dry-wall system, using reclaimed local tuff stone, was implemented in order to terrace the steep hillside to the South-West. The terracing not only mitigates water use and distribution, but also forms plantable, accessible land area.
A new dry-wall terrace was created to the East in order to mitigate drainage problems, keeping water away from the house. This dry-wall frames the house and forms a border between the gravel covered work area, behind the studios, and the kitchen garden.
Border gardens were created at the newly terraced areas. The planting consists of perennial Mediterranean (medicinal) herbs, flowers and bushes, with emphasis on very hardy, low water need plants. The border gardens are not watered additionally.
The kitchen garden has an open and an enclosed area. The enclosure protects from wild animals and serves for more sensitive crops—the structure was inherited and modified. The open garden area is planted with larger crops such as corn, potatoes, melon. A micro-drip system is installed at ground level.
Fruit trees are located in the area surrounding the kitchen garden and include figs, peaches, pomegranates, kaki and quince.
Paintings in Watercolor
What it feels like to be in a place at a particular moment is the source of my inspiration — the quality of light as it transforms the surface of a field, the way moisture softens a horizon, the transparency of a sky before or after rain.
Watercolour is the medium I reach for when I want to stay close to that experience. It keeps the work immediate, present, close to the moment of observation.
These paintings are more figurative than the mixed-media and oil works — more directly tied to a specific place and hour.
Works 2024–2026. Enquiries welcome → kristienring.com/acquisition-enquiries
Nothing found.
Kristien Ring
Renovation of a Farm House and Barn in Tuscany
This simple farm house and attached barn, Casetta Santa Maria, has an open view of the rolling hills of Southern Tuscany. The two-story house is flanked by a spacious barn on one side, and a small ruin on the other. While adhering to the strict planning laws of Tuscany, the barn is converted into ateliers, the ruin into a bathroom. (2022-2023)
The abandoned land and 100 olive trees are in the process of being revitalised.
The roof of the barn needed to be entirely rebuilt, the foundation of the house reinforced, the rainwater system entirely redone. Traditional tuscan roof and fascia with reclaimed, antique roof tiles are used to connect to the surroundings. Local and traditional building materials, such as tuff stone, travertine floor tiles, wood and terracotta are used.
