I’ve begun working on a series of paintings for the exhibition I am planning next summer. I thought I’d share the first one to whet your appetite.
This is the painting which gave me the inspiration for the series. I love old buildings, the falling down, crumbling walls, the rotting wood, the paint chipped doors and windows. The whole abandoned feel of them. It’s something I photograph every time I walk the small streets of the islands (or Athens, to be honest).
I’ve always been drawn to the juxtaposition of the old and the new in its ugly forms – beautiful decaying buildings for instance, with modern day graffiti on them is one of my favourites.
Or, as in this case, the beautiful patina of the old door and cracked walls with the discarded cola can and cigarette butt.
In an experimental mood, I added a little silver foil to the tin can make it stand out a little more. Not the neatest job, but its rubbish anyway, right?
I love this piece and hope others do too. I’m excited about this series of paintings that show the beauty of days gone by against the ugliness of today – the effects of too many people and not enough care about the beautiful places we live in.
And, as usual, this is painted on a recycled canvas.
Another commission to share today, one which took me forever to do. I mean, I started them fine, back before summer… but then it was summer. Busy with grooming and mom being sick and visitors and all sorts of busy summer things.
Up to that point I had only done the structure of them, ie cardboard, masking tape and wire so I needed to move onto the clay or papier mâché part. Since the buyer didn’t want these finished in fabric, I decided to use air dry clay for the whole thing.
And I’m glad I did cause I love the way they turned out.
Given the brief for these guys was ‘something easy to dust’ I opted to spray them with white gloss paint, something I’d never done before as a finish for my work. But I’m really happy with the result.
This is one dog I especially loved doing. He belongs to a friend of mine and he’s a beautiful boy with a lovely personality and serious ball addiction.
He’s some kind of terrier mix with huge ears and a crazy coat.
Here is a close up of his face and those massive ears.
And a little 3D visual.
So, how did I achieve that coat you ask? Well, I thought the best thing for it would be to use gauze. I raided my medicine cabinet and took out some gauze which I dyed by soaking in coloured water: the black was diluted acrylic paint, and the tan was… you guesed it! Black tea!
I then cut up the gauze strips into sections and laid them over the figure in a way that matched Dizzy’s colouring and the direction of the coat.
I then brushed the gauze to loosen it up and give it a more ‘hairy’ appearance.
It worked out pretty well even if do say so myself.
Mind you, the coat is not soft and flowing. I had to fix him with PVA glue to make sure he stayed intact, but he’s a sculpture, not a toy, so I figure that doesn’t matter.
The friend that commissioned him asked about his eyes. I don’t do eyes on my dogs. I’m not really sure why, they just seem better that way. Maybe its because I don’t feel I can do them justice this way, not like I can in my paintings. Maybe its cause without eyes you can project your own eyes onto them, your mind automatically fills in the blanks and imparts the emotions that you want to see in the figures.
Maybe I’m full of crap. But I’m the artist, so I have creative license. Ha.
Things have been busy lately. Hectic really. I seem to always be going on an errand, grooming a dog, returning from an errand, cooking,shopping for groceries, trying to keep the house clean, and still getting in a swim now and then!
And on the afternoons when I’m not too busy, I sit at the kitchen table and play with paints. It’s a good way to de-stress. If you can find the time… preferably not late at night because then I can’t sleep cause I’m wound up.
I’ve been inspired now and then to try something new just for a change.
So, here are my latest painted rocks. Above a very painterly donkey. I’d gotten the idea to use an old book I’d been given to decoupage a couple of stones just to see how they would turn out. I used larger rocks for these and its not perfect but I kinda like it.
Below is a cat treated the same way…
Next the tried and true octopus, but trying brighter colours and more contrast. Not sure I like it, but its not too bad.
I had to redo this cat cause the watercolours I was using on all my marble paintings doesn’t work so well on rocks. It’s now much better.
I also thought I’d try a couple of very graphic style stones…
These I really like. I love the stark contrast between the black and white.
So, I need a bit of rest before I gotta get up and greet visitors coming to see mom. Who is getting better all the time. She will soon be back to bossing me around.
I think I mentioned working on half the kitchen table. Not much space, but enough to work on smaller projects like fridge magnets and rocks. Since I still had some wooden shapes, I’d gotten on Temu, I decided to go ahead and finish them all. I also found I still had some magnets, so I was able to finish them.
I used acrylic paint to do these, and a very very thin rigger brush to get the fine lines.
I love these little plant magnets, though I’m not thrilled with the mushroom ones…
I love the cats too and am thinking I need to do more of these. Maybe a little bigger. Maybe as coasters as well…
Remember these?
This is what they look like now. The evil eye, a very popular theme in Greece. Much better.
I had some more of these round flat pieces so I did some more simple colourful sea urchins.
Remember these?
Now they’re starfish. Or they could be urchins if that’s how you prefer to see them. But they’re not. They’re starfish.
I had a few more of these half rounds so I made more stylized urchins. I think I prefer these 3D ones, but both are nice.
Lastly, remember these fish – the top ones were made using the wood burning marker and the bottom ones were decoupaged.
This is what they look like now. Much more fun!
I’ve ordered more wooden shapes, some of the same and others in different sizes, not sure what I’ll make when I get them, but they’re fun to work with!
These little magnets are cute and make great little presents of the ‘stocking filler’ sort.
I am lucky to live on an island full of creative people. One of those people, who’s work I’d seen around before but only recently met, is Dimitra Skandali. Dimitra is a gorgeous, inspirational woman who grew up on Paros and who creates the most fantastic works of art.
I visited her studio last week and she allowed me to take some photos of this wonderful space while we had a coffee and chatted.
Like all artists, her space is full of stuff… stuff in the process of being created, finished stuff, bits of stuff, stuff to make things with, stuff which might come in handy one day, collected stuff, found stuff, wonderful stuff, fun stuff, pretty stuff, old stuff, broken stuff, small stuff, big stuff… just STUFF in all its forms.
I could have spent happy hours exploring her studio!
Her workbench in the middle of the space has tools and materials laid out in preparation for her current projects, laid out neatly, everything within reach…
Crates and bags of dried organic matter, flowers, thread, the ubiquitous stuff she finds which might work in this or an upcoming project.
I just love these hanging baskets dotted with dried flowers. I can’t wait to have my own studio full of things like that… and the space to leave things out and not have to pack one project away to begin another, have visitors or cook…
A weaving project she’s working on laid out over an antique chair. Made from old fishing nets, seaweed and other materials she’s weaved together. Beautiful, haunting and oh so intricately worked.
One day I’ll have a mannequin set up with my tea bag dress in the corner of my studio and pretty stuff everywhere!
Look at all those gorgeous hanging bits and woven art on the walls!
One of the first pieces of Dimitra’s work I’d ever seen was a collection of framed work she’d made using seaweed, like this below.
The little office nook. How cute is that!
I could really relate to her studio – like many artists, myself included! – there are surprises everywhere you look. Part of an old lamp is now the home of a large rusty moth… and it just works!
Dimitra runs the Cycladic Arts Center, a place that has artists in residence from around the world through the year, has shows on a regular basis and hosts events.
I encourage you to visit her website to see her work and explore the Cycladic Arts Centre site.
I came home inspired… then looked at the mess I call a home/studio and despaired. I am nowhere near her league of professionalism.
It’s time to start working again! It’s been too long.
So… this is what’s been keeping me busy for the last month, and more flat-out the last 4 days.
My friend Athina and I decided that rather than just combine our skills, talents, experience and energy to do smaller creative workshops as we’ve done in the past, we would do a HUGE event/workshop combination to end all event/workshop combinations!
Ok, so, the idea began as a desire to meet other creatives on Paros, to inspire and share our skills and to raise funds for charity.
Rather than set up a lot of individual workshops we decided to combine a show/fair and mini workshops into 2 days over a weekend. All for FREE.
We invited creatives from different genres to join us and set up in a beautiful space owned by the municipality. The plan was simple – 6-7pm meet and greet the artists and check out their work. 7-9pm FREE mini workshops. Buy/donate money to charity.
We were lucky enough to obtain support from many small businesses on the island in order to arrange everything and the weekend was a huge success. Everyone had fun, people learned new things and we even raised money for our chosen charities.
Athina has been doing work with people with disabilities her whole life so her chosen charity was the Cycladic association for the blind, AROGI.
I chose to support PAWS, the Paros Animal Welfare Society, cause, you know… me and animals!
We had people who did collage, decoupage, soaps and lotions, jewelry, weaving, watercolour, mixed media, macrame, rock painting, fimo sculpture, mandalas and cookie decorating.
Here are some photos of the event!
We also had a demonstration of tap dancing and tango from people who teach on the island.
As always, Vincent was there to spread the joy…
The president of AROGI gave a short talk and shared what their association does for people with sight issues on the islands and brought in some items to give people a taste of what its like to not be able to see.
And of course we had information about PAWS and donation tins.
All in all, it was a fun weekend and a great success. We will be organising more stuff in the future, but of course, like life in any tourist destination… as summer approaches everyone becomes too busy to do anything other than work. So autumn is when we plan to start up again!
Till then I need to find a way to advertise and book my own sculpture and art workshops for visitors on the island – now that Air BnB is no longer supporting new ‘adventures’…
I will put out flyers in hotels and such, but that means people can only book on short notice (as they aren’t often here for long) and I’m often flat out grooming in summer. I need to have advance notice to organise workshops.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to get the word out and book small private workshops online, please let me know.
Yes, I know. I’ve gone and done another disappearing act. But as usual, I have great excuses.
I’ve been busy grooming dogs in the morning, working 5 hrs every afternoon/evening at a travel agency, and trying to get a swim, a rest and some food in between.
Unfortunately, art has gone by the wayside as is always the case… its always the first thing I sacrifice. Cause its easy to do. Jobs for money get 1st priority, then food, then rest. Even the dishes get more attention than art… as pitiful as that sounds.
This coming feom a woman who didn’t mop the floors for weeks…
So, for now I’m sharing the last 2 small pallet trays I painted. I found the trays and couldn’t resist them cause they seemed cute, and just added a few touches to make them cuter.
The first one got fish, cause, well, everything gets fish pretty much. The second got an octopus… just because.
Other than that, life is pretty much as always. The island is still full of people but its a lot quieter than last month. I yearn for winter and quiet. And time to myself, to be at home for whole days at a time where I don’t have to see anyone at all… or be anywhere.
Oh lockdown, where are you now?
Is it healthy to wish you could just be left alone to do your own thing?
I bought a tiny folding bluetooth keyboard which I’m trying out on the phone. It will take a little getting used to if I’m to use it to do stuff like this, but it sure will be handy for connecting to the TV for searches and other typing needs.
Whatever.
Hopefully I will find/make some time to do some art soon. I miss it.
I needed a pepper mill. I have peppercorns and no pepper. No ground pepper… So instead of buying ground pepper I thought it would be better to buy a pepper mill and use the peppercorns.
So I went looking. There were tons to choose from… but in the end I decided to try to personalise a simple wooden one I found in a local shop.
I gave it a quick light sand and began with a bit of leftover creamy white chalk paint. Then I painted circles in a stylized greek ‘evil eye’ design and finished off with some dots. Cause, why not.
Its random in its design but I think its unique and I’m happy with it.
Just one small bit of creativity finished quickly one afternoon. I’m ready to cook now.
junk4joy 