Nature is what guides all my senses and emotions. I describe life, as I discover it, as I've discovered it, as I pass through it... I can also paint a picture relying entirely on my imagination, but they are always subjects linked to emotional events that I have vividly and intensely experienced: imprints left by beautiful or ugly visions. A stormy sky, a bolt, a flash, a gale-force sea, a withering flower; even the artichoke after having produced its "fruit" withers and becomes marvellous: it opens and sticks out its minute, pin shaped purple petals; so beautiful. I've painted those too.
(Mario Lupo - "Story of life, story of painting")