see my previous post to learn about this series. the first six have been sent off to greece and now i'm starting another group of six. this is the first, titled under the plane tree, 9.25x12"/22.5x30.5 cm.
the photos for this were shot decades ago, in theofilos kairis square, in the town of chora on the cycladic island of andros. first row, right: an early stage of the painting.
7/11/14: next in this series is view towards the acropolis 9.25x12"/22.5x30.5cm, on row 2.
7/12/14: TODAY i began another one, 2nd row right, based on photos i shot on the greek island of folegandros about 10 years ago. if you haven't been, buy your tickets. what you see is stage 1. always tempted to leave these "unfinished" ones as is. i have a great catalogue from the gere collection of 19th c. landscape oil sketches which were shown at the national gallery in london in 1999. some of the finest paintings in this collection were unfinished studies, such as the one you see here, by french 19th c. painter g.f.j. closson.
7/13/14: the completed painting is on row 3.
7/15/14: the 4th in the series, panachrandos, was begun yesterday and just now completed. it's on the 3rd row, right. panachrandos is one of the many names of a monastery on the island of andros, overlooking the entire valley, beyond which the sea is visible. the figure on the left is my son, dimitri, whose theatre production of his grandfather's landmark greek novel the great chimera opened last night for a 4 performance run at the athens festival. his site is: http://poreiatheatre.com/en/
7/16/14: today i began the 5th in this series, folegandros sunset, row 5. making the squiggly marks on the sheer cliff of rocks brought into play my recent studies of 11th c. calligraphic master huang tingjian. this allowed me to remember that, as david hockney has often said, i'm simply making marks on a surface.
7/17/14: and the final gouache in this series of six, two figures, yialia, andros., on row 4 below. left: the first stage, right: completed painting.
