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I've never done any series except for paper dolls of 4 musketeers and their ladies and clothes for them - when I was a child! So this is my first. I was happy to accept the challenge from the artist Anne Livingston on YouTube and join a very friendly group of other artists who are doing the same thing. The series of the group of artists which joined from all corners of the world is called "Series Under the Same Sky".
My theme: Greek Streets
Why? Because Greece was my home for a certain period of my life. And also because when thinking about what would be my theme I remembered this photograph from my first Greek stay and felt like painting it and I knew I had many more so it was a good material for my series. It became a journey back in time, remembering old stories and confronting my younger self with my current self. Traveling was my biggest wish before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Greece was the first foreign country where I lived and studied for a longer period. I now speak the language and know a lot about their culture. Another reason why I chose streets is the fact that I've been painting streets since I was 17. My first being actually my first big painting in oil. You can see an older version of it in my Gallery section "Cityscapes - Europe & World". It is called "Road to Heaven".
Why these photographs? I went through all my numerous photo albums from Greece and these simply caught my eye. They have a good composition material, they are quite different from each other, they represent ordinary and more popular places, they are places with a lot of memories or just one fleeting moment. They are very Greek while the colors are very much mine. Actually one of my oldest greek friends told me that "I've got a piece of Greece in me and that it shows" ...
My media: since I'm currently painting only in digital, I used my iPad and the Procreate app. I chose three brushes: shading graphite, wet acrylic and gouache. I used each on two paintings. Always only one brush for sketching, painting, erasing or blending of one painting.
My color palettes: I chose two from color palettes which I'd created in a traditional way on a color wheel in Procreate. They differ from each other, one is warmer the other has both cold and warm colors. One of them came from the colors of my old drawing done during that first time I was in Greece and the other one is based on colors from my grandfather's painting of my grandmother. Everything is very connected.
The paintings are presented in the order they were created. I might add another 2 to 4 to make it 10, as I originally planned, later.
Ta Kastra
Thessaloniki old upper city quarter
Amazing place at the top of the old Thessaloniki old town. The buildings probably don't exist anymore. I loved the density of this photo, the maze of shapes which you can find in these old Greek neighborhoods. The warm color represents the feeling of the Greek sun and light which is bright and at the same time not blinding.
Beautiful Salonika with Hidden Olympos
Thessaloniki old upper city quarter
I'm using half English and half Greek names in this title. Looking down at the city of Thessaloniki from this street you see the Thessaloniki Bay and sometimes, when the day is clear you will see the majestic mountain of Olympus right opposite!
Around the Corner
Island of Skopelos
Old doors or absence of them... I have a collection of photos from Skopelos. Everything is white and just a little worn out color. So I added some color, a lot of it. Greece is colorful, or I see it that way.
Lazy Afternoon
Leptokaria, Olympus Riviera
Leptokaria is a small village under the Olympus mountain. It's full of tourists in the summer and very quiet in the winter. I actually know the fisherman who works on this little boat early in the morning. Afternoon is a rest time and it can be lazy.
I made a video about the whole process of creating these 4 paintings of the series for my Youtube channel.
Maybe This Way?
Island of Skiathos
Skiathos and Skopelos are the two main islands of the Sporades islands. They are both picturesque and inviting to explore every little corner and narrow street. This one is on Skiathos.
The 5th painting got its own video and I'm commenting on the whole painting process in detail.
Memories Are Dreams
Island of Skopelos
You dream about a place and ideal trip or vacations, then you experience it and then when you remember it feels again as if it was a dream! I remember vaguely this little church and I know there were more of them on Skopelos. It was white again and so I gave it new colorful coat.
Here the painting proces of my last painting in the series, the sketch with commentary, the painting time-lapse and also one quite adventurous story from my time in Greece in 2000.
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