4:08 PM: today in reviewing the photos i shot while in greece last week, i was moved to draw from them instead of the watercolor/collage i posted yesterday. so right now i’m adjusting them in photoshop. i may strat working on the 78x 27” canvas tomorrow.
2018 watercolor/collage 1 will become a 78 inch high oil /
4:33 PM: this morning i read and made corrections to mikela’s proposal for an important grant for her educational product and took periodic breaks, which allowed me to be more focused when i resumed as well as allowing me to start a new project. the new project will be an oil, possibly with collaged elements, inspired by this 2018 watercolor/collage, which i have framed & hanging in the studio.
it’s something, believe it or not, i’ve never done! it’s going to be tricky to translate the spontaneity of this small work on paper to a 78” tall canvas, but i haven’t signed a contract stating that it has to exactly mirror the watercolor/collage! more than anything, it excites me as a challenge, whatever happens.
we’ll see tomorrow how it goes…
light snow last night / resuming work in the studio /
1:13 PM: my jet lag today is a lot worse than yesterday, plus i can’t seem to warm up. the temperature outside is 25F and the wind is gusting to 30mph, with a wind chill of 12F.
i tried getting to work, but all i could do was to make a small self portrait in colored pencil & pastel. maybe tomorrow will be better.
self portrait in colored pencil & pastel, 25x17 cm.
6:51 AM: it’s currently snowing lightly, and we received about 1/4” last night. every litttle bit counts in continuing our emergence from drought conditions here in crestone/baca!
i’ll be headed to my studio in an hour or two and will resume painting after 2+ weeks in greece. updates as they occur…
welcome home philip & mikela! / 6/19/20 creek watercolor in new frame / a dramatic afternoon sky /
3:28 PM the southern sky as it looked when i left the studio. looks kind of like what i remember the dutch skies were like.
3:28 PM: as i left my studio this afternoon (the time difference was affecting me & i suddenly felt vert sleepy) i glanced across our san luis valley to the south and saw this dramatic sky. remember, the valley floor is 7,500 ft./ or 2,286 meters.
6/19/20 creek watercolor, 24x33cm.
3:06 PM: i’m back in my studio & it feels fantastic! too tired to work until tomorrow morning, but i placed a 6/19/20 creek watercolor in a spare frame i brought back from athens & it fit prefecftly, showing off the piece beautifully. it’s inspiring me to go back to paint plein air at cottonwood creek, and it won’t be too long before it warms up enough for that to happen!
10/20/22 watercolor, 10x38cm. creek inspired
5:50 am: temperature, 7.7 F. wind chill -9F (-22.7 C.) 20% chance for snow after 3pm.
we fell asleep yesterdayat 6:15 PM, and we’ve both been up since about 1:30 am due to the 8 hour time difference from athens.
the first thing i saw as i went upstairs to brew mikela’s yemeni coffee (our kitchen/living room are on the top floor so we can enjoy the spectacular views) was this, as yet unframed, watercolor, painted on 10/20/22.
after the athens experience of my genesis show, it looks pretty damned good, and would have fit in well with the other two creek paintings in the show. Ah well…..there will be more next time…and we’re but deeply grateful to george tzaneris, director of the gallery,for his outstanding support during our entire stay, and for the love and care he put into every detail.
in case you’re wondering about the yemeni coffee, i get the beans raw & roast them a day or so before brewing, to insure freshness and taste, then grind them just before brewing in my Giannina 6 Cup Stainless Steel Stove Top Espresso Maker. a little frothed soy milk & you’ve got the perfect cappucino! if you’re interested in knowing more about roasting & brewing just text me.
BELOW: the fresh roast raw coffee bean roaster, which you adjust based on how light or dark you like your beans. Freshly roasted coffee reaches best or "Peak Flavor" on day 8-14 after roasting. Compare this to coffee from the grocery store, which is often >120 days old!
giannina espresso maker with capresso bean grinder
back in denver, driving to crestone this afternoon /
6:51 am: we arrived at denver airport at 7:35 last evening and waited in the cold for the hotel bus to take us to our airport hotel. it was a very long journey; 19 hours counting a 6 hour layover in munich airport, so we were very happy to finally lie down and rest.
we had a great dinner together with our grandkids and gallery director yeorgos the night before leaving! my grand kids were there, as well as the wonderful gallery director, yeorgos tzaneris.
during our flight over the alps, i shot this photo. they’re snow covered, but barely, reflecting the general absence of moisture. to me they look like two huge dragons!
athens-denver /
1:03 PM: this morning at 6 the uber picked us up and drove us to athens airport. our flight left on time, landed in munich and now we’re in the airport lounge. i made a couple of drawings and mikela did some very good work on her grant application.
a ferry interview / drawing of leonidas /
11:25 am: yesterday afternoon we sat and talked over coffee with leonidas, son of the great greek poet andreas embirikos and an old friend. as we talked, i pulled out my drawing book and made a quick colored pencil drawing. it kind of looks like him, but makes him younger. he’s ding a very unusual and interesting project, traveling all over greece and neighboring countries recording the increasingly few people who speak the original dialects of the region where they were born. it’s a huge undertaking, which is still in progress.
this morning i gave a video interview focused on the sinking of a ferry years ago, which had one of my commissioned paintings hanging in the main sitting room. the inetrview was in greek, and covers many topics, including my experiences on the island of andros, where my former mother in law, the great painter niki karagatsi was born.
preparing for my gallery talk with dimitri on thursday draing of tzaneris / kathimerini newspaper article by vatopoulos /
5:20 PM: this afternoon at the gallery i made a drawing of gallery director and new friend yiorgos tzaneris.he requested that i make a drawing of him to add to his rich collection of gallery artists who have drawn him.
it’s always a little tricky to make a drawing on request, as opposed to my usual hotel lobby or coffee shop drawings made in a state of spur of the moment inspiratipn.
he sat absolutely motionless for as long as it took me to make the drawing, and when i showed it to him he was enthusiastically positive; so i guress i overcame my caution about making a drawing on demand!
before leaving the gallery, he gave me a copy of the major greek newspaper kathimerini, where there’s a beautiful article by nikos vatopoulos about me and the exhibition. i’ll translate it for you when i find time in our busy athens schedule.
11:15 AM: some important collectors will be coming to the gallery in 45 minutes, so i need to get ready & i’ll make this post brief until i have more time this afternoon.
my cousin mindy and her husband marc, who have been here for the past week, staying in the same hotel as us, just left an hour ago to fly back to new york. we had a really wondderful time together! it was their first visit to greece, and i think they had a good experience, including attending two of dimitri’s plays at his theatre: poreia.
my gallery talk yesterdfay /
10:43 am: yesterday afternoon i gave a gallery talk, which i invented in the moment. it covered everything from analyses of a few paintings in the show to an overview of my day in my colorado studio. if i had been able to transport the audience to crestone for 20 minutes, it would have been ideal.
it was fun for me to speak to an audience that included my son dimitri and two grand children philip & manio, who had never heard me speak about my work. I had no idea what i was going to say, but it seemed that people enjoyed & got value from my talk, from the comments i received afterwards.
the opening at genesis /
11:26 AM:the genesis gallery opening took place two days ago, on thursday march 16 from 7 to 10 pm . it was truly wonderful to see so many old friends, both from athens and andros, and to meet so many wonderful visitors to the exhibitions. i was able to see my paintings through their eyes and receive many insightful comments and observations.
of course i began envisioning my next series of paintings and strategizing where i might show them next. there were no sales at the opening, but yiorgos, the gallery director, explained that his regular collectors are staying away form crowded openings due to covid fears, and will be showing up in the coming days.
this afternoon from noon to 3pm there’s an event at thje gallery & i’ll be giving a short talk about 2pm.
yesterday we visited several athens museums with my cousin mindy & her husband mark. i shot quite a few photos fro use in future paintings. it was a cloudy, rainy day in athens, but we had a very fun day followed by a delicious dinner. hard to beat the athenian appetizers!