11:06 AM: before getting to work/play, i revisited a painting made over the course of 3 years: 2007-2010. it measures 8.5x5.25",47x13cm and is painted in oil on stretched linen.
niki karagatsi, tailor shop, chania, crete 1971 tempera 41x30cm.
over breakfast, I was looking at a book of paintings by my former mother-in-law, the greek painter niki karagatsi. it made me somewhat nostalgic for those days when niki and I would go out together to paint. she didn’t drive, so it was convenient to have me along as her driver. we frequently painted the same subjects; perhaps a tailor in his shop, or a view of the landscape in chania, crete, where we spent a few summers. when in andros, we would often swim at piso yialia beach, a short walk over a little hill, from the main beach of yialia. during my final years living and painting in greece, I shot a photo of two male bathers at that beach. back in colorado, that photo haunted me and was iconic of andros and of that period of my life. so I made this little painting in 2007, and periodically went back and worked on it until 2010, when I felt it was complete.
so let’s see what I do today, and if it’s influenced by this flashback.