Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with another painter about oriental rugs.

Not only are the patterns and designs endlessly fascinating, but the weavers often had an amazing sense of color harmony – the best of them seem to glow from within.

And for hundreds of years, painters have known this well and found inventive ways to include these carpets in their paintings.

In fact, one style of rug – the Lotto Carpet – is not named after the region it comes from, but because the Renaissance artist Lorenzo Lotto placed several rugs in this style in his paintings.

I love putting carpets in my paintings as well – it’s a real pleasure to work with their gorgeous designs and colors – even the texture of the wool.

The carpet in this painting is a small meditation mat (about 16 x 16 inches) that I brought back from a visit to a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in India.

The monks use similar mats as floor cushions during long ceremonies, lectures, and meditation sessions – at one point I saw many hundreds of these set out in a large temple.

For your enjoyment: “Handmade Bowl, Grapes, Tibetan Rug”, oil on panel, 5×5 inches (sold).