Working in a style that is both abstracted and impressionistic, Italian painter Leonardo Ciccarelli creates works of atmospheric beauty and emotional poignancy.  Applying his textural impasto brushstrokes with a light and airy hand, Ciccarelli produces the dual optical illusions of extreme flatness and convincing depth.  His translucent colors, ranging in hue from deep reds and umbers to the palest of pastels, further lighten his canvases, giving them each a sense of impermanence and evanescence.  The ephemeral quality of Ciccarelli's oils on canvas recalls the fleeting nature of life, and most importantly, memory.  His paintings eloquently capture the transience of recollections of the past, preserving only hints of a moment in time, while allowing all but the scene's essence to fade into abstraction.  In doing so, Ciccarelli gives a particularly touching commentary on the passing of time.