4:54 PM: we oook our walk up the trail this afternoon, and at the spot where we stop & turn around, i usually make a small drawing. today was no exception. i love making these colored pencil drawings and observing their development over time.
the challenge is, in a very short period of time, to make very small drawings using a limited selection of colored pencils that reflect the fugitive quality of light in the moment.
The Hat Shop, oil on linen, 1966-7 24 3/4 x 26" collection of the artist
11:52 AM: 3 years into my 15 year sojourn in greece (without once returning to the states) i was married to marina karagatsi, daughter of the aclaimed novelist m. karagatsis. his wife and my then mother-in-law was niki karagatsi, an excellent painter from whom i learned a lot. she didn’t drive, but loved going down to piraeus to paint the interiors of various hat shops, etc. so i became her driver for those expeditions, and in the process developed a strong attraction to and interest in that world.
this is one of a series of paintings of a hat making shop i made during those trips with niki. there were many more, most of which are in private collections in athens.