In this conversation, Winter reflects on his journey from precision to meaning, the unexpected ways viewers connect with his work, and his belief that for artists of any age, the only thing that matters is to begin.
Where Are You From?
I grew up in Italy and I am living in Switzerland now.
Where do you long to live (reality or fantasy)?
I love living in Switzerland, it is in a way a fantasy land for me.
What started you on your journey into art professionally?
For as long as I can remember, art has been my way of understanding the world. It was a quiet, instinctive need rather than a planned career path. Choosing it professionally happened when I stopped seeing it as something on the side and finally allowed it to take up real space in my life.
Painting became the place where I could speak without compromise. Through it, I explored beauty, vulnerability, and memory, all the things that are difficult to express in words. Over time, sharing that process with others, exhibiting my work, and witnessing how people connect emotionally to it made me realize that this was not just something I loved. It was who I am.
That is how the journey began. Not with a grand decision, but with the slow unfolding of a truth I could no longer ignore.
How has your art changed and evolved over the years?
My art has evolved in the same way we do as human beings through experience, introspection, and the balance between control and surrender. In the beginning I was focused on technique, working to master realism with precision and discipline. But over time I realized that perfection alone was not enough. I began to seek something deeper, something that carried emotion, silence, and presence.
Today my work still carries the foundation of realism, but it has become more symbolic and filled with meaning. I have learned to let the mystery live within the details, to leave space for the viewer, and to embrace softness alongside intensity. The figures, animals, and objects I paint are no longer just subjects. They are messengers, part of quiet stories I am still discovering.
If your artwork could come to life and interact with you, what kind of conversation would you have with it?
I think it would be a quiet conversation, one filled with long pauses and unspoken truths. My artwork would not need many words. It would look at me the way my animals do in the paintings , with calm intensity, as if it already knew what I was feeling before I said anything.
What is the one statement you could give to your younger self that you would give anything to go back and relay to them at a pivotal moment?
“You are not too much. You are exactly enough. Trust the quiet things that call you, even if no one else hears them yet.”
In what ways do you think your personal experiences and emotions shape the way you connect with your work?
For me, painting is never separate from who I am or what I feel. My personal experiences do not just influence the work, they are woven into it, often without me even realizing it at first. Emotions arrive like quiet guests, and they stay in the gestures, in the eyes of the figures, in the spaces between color and silence.
What is the most unexpected thing to occur with your work through the years that shifted your perspective in a way you never anticipated?
One of the most unexpected things has been how people see themselves in my work, in ways I never intended, in places I never imagined. I paint from very personal places, but when someone stands in front of a piece and quietly says, “This is how I feel too,” it still takes me by surprise.
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Have you ever imagined your art as a time capsule—what do you think future generations would think of it?
I hope future generations would not just observe my work, but feel it. And I hope they would understand that these were not just paintings, but offerings, a way of saying, we were here, we felt deeply, we tried to make meaning through beauty.
What advice would you give an artist starting out (young, middle-aged, old – any age) who wants to do it professionally?
Start now. At any age. There is no right moment, no perfect beginning. The only thing that matters is that you begin.
