A Painting A Week No 130 - Reflections of Alonissos

For Sale - 1st October 2013 
Reflections of Alonissos
Size: 21 x 15cm
(Postage and handling included)

When I was staying in the port of Patitiri on the lovely Greek Island of Alonissis in July, beneath my hotel window was a long line of fishing boats. They would be 'missing' when I woke in the mornings, and then gradually returned later in the day. I wandered past them most days in the hope of some good reflections and found that after 7pm they were at their best! Quite a few of the boats were red, and their reflections against the brilliant blue and turquoise water was definitely a painting in the making.

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my  Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

Scroll down to the post below to see Art Exhibition in Koroni.......

A Painting A Week No 127 - Chania, Crete

For Sale - 31st July 2013 
Chania, Crete
Size: 21 x 15cm
(Postage and handling included)

We were in Crete a little over a year ago with some Sydney friends, and this was my favourite place. Chania is the second largest city in Crete, but it feels more like a bustling town. The 'old town' is built around a lovely harbour, and crammed with the usual Greek tavernas and bars. Behind this, is a myriad of lanes and alleyways to explore - fairly touristy I guess, but the whole place does have a great buzz to it, even when you get further away from the harbour, where'll you'll also find some interesting Minoan excavations, as well as Venetian and Turkish areas.

This painting is of a very small area along the waterfront (our hotel was the pale blue one on the right!), with the haphazard line of awnings, and shops and restaurants below. It was fairly windy when we visited, and the harbour was rough, hence no boats lined up along the front.

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my  Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

A Painting A Week No 126 - Fishing Boat, Koroni

For Sale - 25th June 2013 
Fishing Boat, Koroni Harbour
Size: 21 x 15cm
(Postage and handling included)

Not a very exciting title for a painting, but I seem to have Greek fishing boats everywhere I look right now, as well as in Koroni harbour and the bay below us. I've been painting them, sketching them, and sticking them onto collages. Each little waterside village around here has its unique selection of boats, and yes, most of them really do go out fishing each day, or night, and keep all the local restaurants full of seafood. I just love the shape of them, all the accoutrement hanging off them, not to forget all the little 'sticky uppy bits' (which I've recently told my students not to ignore!)

Summer has arrived with a vengance now - too hot for sitting on the edge of harbours sketching, but perfect for relaxing in any one of Koroni's many cafes with an ice cold frappe, or an ouzo in your hand!

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my  Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

A Painting A Week No 123 - The Olive Tree, Koroni

For Sale - 1st May 2013 
 The Olive Tree, Koroni
Size: 21 x 15cm
(Postage and handling included)

This olive tree is an integral part of our view and stands proudly in our neighbour, Vassili's field, with the blue sea behind. A good subject I think, to recommence my 2013's artistic pursuits!

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my  Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at either jackiesinfrance@hotmail.com or jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

Back in Greece and business is resumed!

Apologies for the huge gap in time since my last post. Its been a busy few months with travel to Australia and New Zealand, and to LA for Peter, and of course our wedding in Sydney. Why I always try and fool myself that I'll be able to produce some weekly paintings whilst travelling, I don't know.  Anyway, here we are now, just arrived back in Koroni and ready to settle into our quiet life here for another few months.



Before I publish my next painting though, I'll just write a short(ish) post about the last 3 months..... here goes

As we tend to do, we flew via France to sort out visas etc.  Its always a bit of a shock to arrive there in winter and be reminded of the cold, but the Languedoc always looks beautiful, no matter what season.

Sydney was wonderful, and its usual bustling self, and I do love arriving there and feeling in charge again! I guess I can only put it down to the language barriers of living in places where I barely speak the language. Its mostly just being able to chat to people when we're out and about that I miss most! It was looking particularly green this visit, despite some scorching days they'd had earlier in summer. The good ole Sydney rain was never too far away, but I must say for the whole month of March, it did itself justice, particularly for the important Wedding Day!

But before the wedding, and after kicking into organisation mode and a lot of rushing about (which its a relief to know I can still do!), we headed up to Northern Queensland to join my son James at his Graduation. It was a wonderful chance to see that part of Australia for the first time too.  It was all very beautiful and tropical, and yes, I am most definitely going to point some palm trees soon.

Townsville Strand Beach - stinger season so sadly not a soul in the water!

View from the hotel

The wedding went off beautifully. We had a lovely sunny day, though it was rather hot, and a little windy down next to the harbour, but we couldn't have wished for anything more and being able to celebrate with lots of family and friends on the edge of one of the world's most beautiful harbours. A day to remember for sure.

Pete and I had a week to get used to being married, before we headed off into different directions (typical of our doing things a little back to front!) Peter to Los Angeles, and me to New Zealand. where I had some total relaxation at 'the farm' with the sheep and pukekos (and sister and brother in-law too of course). I also managed two nights in Auckland with great friends and a nice catch up with others there.  Then after 10 days or so the bride and groom met up again in Montpellier, France for 5 days of more R&R (and another reminder of chilly weather) before flying into Athens......

Today, is the first day I've managed to get into some painting;  those palm trees are on their way!

A Painting A Week No 120 - Koroni Rooftops, a Trip Down Under... and A Wedding!

For Sale - 4th February 2013
Koroni Rooftops, Greece
SOLD
(Postage and handling included)

This painting has been done in a rather sketchy palette knife technique - a simplified version of one I did as a demonstration at some recent Acrylic Classes that I taught, in conjunction with my art buddy, Gill.  Here is a link to her website showing the most recent session, and you can also look back over the previous 3 weeks of Wednesday and Friday classes if you wish. http://artistswindow.com/new/2013/02/final-friday-acrylics-2/

It was an honour to be able to guide these lovely people through the technique that I generally use, and I was impressed with the work they did over the 4 week course. Considering most of them hadn't used acrylics before, and certainly not in this way, they turned out some beautiful paintings. We look forward to being able to continue in the spring.

This view from one of the pathways through the houses down to Koroni port, is one of many that I love, and I thought it appropriate to have it as this week's painting as we leave tomorrow for the slow and rather involved trip back to Australia. Car willing, we drive to Patras, and take the overnight ferry to Bari in Italy (assuming they're running - they're a little few and far between during the winter months, and I believe they were all on strike this weekend!) We'll spend a few days driving through Italy, and hope to arrive in the Languedoc during the weekend. We'll have a few days around Pezenas to take care of a bit more French bureaucracy and then on Valentine's Day, we both fly out of Paris, but in totally different directions; I go straight to Sydney, and Pete to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks with his Mum.

It will be busy visit to Sydney this time. No exhibition to worry about, but a wedding instead!  Yes, we're tying the knot on 23rd March!  I'm sure there'll be masses of rushing about getting organised, and of course, lots and lots of shopping and socialising.  We're also going up to Northern Queensland for a week, to attend James' graduation  from James Cook University, and we're looking forward to exploring the areas around Cairns and Townsville during that time. In our usual topsy turvey way, we're also turning it into an early honeymoon (which is just as well, because when we leave Australia, I fly off alone to spend 10 days in New Zealand!) I'm looking forward to trying my hand at painting some Australian beaches lined with swaying palms (and obviously the wedding too!)

Of course, I'm still hoping to post blogs and my weekly paintings as we travel about. I'm sure its just a matter of notching myself up a gear or three once we leave quiet peaceful Koroni..... we shall see!

I'm just adding a little note here - the ferries are still on strike and are not committing as to whether they'll be running Wednesday, so we've launched ourselves into Plan B, which is to fly from Athens to Montpellier, via Paris, (where we'll be leaving from a few days later) - it entails all sorts of complications, but hey, we'll get there eventually!

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my  Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at either jackiesinfrance@hotmail.com or jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

A Painting A Week 119 - Kalamata Olives, Koroni

For Sale - 22nd January 2013
Kalamata Olives
Size: 15 x 21cm
(Postage and handling included)

We're coming to the end of the olive picking season here in the Peloponnese  The area, since November, has been a whirr of chainsaws, chattering locals, and lovely olive wood smoke - it gives a whole new fresh aroma to your towels! The roads are cluttered with tractors hauling their  loads to the local olive press with exhausted workers perched on top of their big hessian sacks of olives. We 'helped' some friends of ours for 2-3 days at the beginning of the season, and got a taste of the whole process.  From the cutting off of the large heavily laden branches with the chainsaw, to the shredding of the olives off the branches. Each tree has a huge green net laid underneath to catch the olives as they're whacked off the trees (whacking is quite permissible and there are even special long forks for this very reason), or shredded off the branches. There is a very clever portable machine for the shredding process too.

The visit to the olive press was a great experience - all those millions of teensy olives travelling up and down conveyor belts and through various bits of shining machinery and, at the other end, out pours beautiful thick  rich green olive oil.... immediately ready for cooking or the table.

 I was impressed when I discovered these two huge piles of debris at the back of the Olive Press. One is leaves and twigs, and the other is the skins, pips etc. I'm very pleased to say that the latter is made into pellets, something similar to 'heat beads' for burning in your fireplace over the winter - a rather 'green' initiative - well done Greece!

Kalamata is our nearest city - a 40 minute drive along a windy narrow road dotted with villages, tractors,  rubbish bins, and sometimes even donkeys, not to forget Greek drivers. Kalamata olives are reknown world-wide for their rich and fruity flavour. These table olives are almond shaped, large, purple to black olives and are usually preserved in either wine vinegar, or olive oil. The chainsaw method is not used for these, as they have to be picked carefully to avoid bruising. These are the olives in my painting, hand picked by me!

Kalamata Olives, slitted and ready to go into a brine

Koroni Extra Virgin Olive Oil is pressed from the smaller Koroneiki olive. These come exclusively from the Koroni area where we live, which boasts the highest quality olives for making olive oil. These olives are much smaller than the Kalamata olives and when harvested are a mixture of purple, reddish, green and yellow. The trees at the end of the harvest tend to take on a rather haphazard lopsided look, but soon recover to their former glory with the new spring growth.  There's nothing like looking down on the swaying trees in the afternoon breeze - all those silvery branches.

Koroneiki Olives

Our view towards the east over the olive trees, with the Monastery and the Church of Panagia Eleistria

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my  Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at either jackiesinfrance@hotmail.com or jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

A Painting A Week No 118 - Bells at the Monastery

For Sale - 20th December 2012
Bells at the Monastery
Size: 15 x 21cm
SOLD
(Postage and handling included)

These lovely old bells are hanging against the church in Koroni's beautiful Holy Monastery of St John.  Set inside the walls of the ancient Venetian castle, the Monastery stands out proudly with its many whitewashed chapels and domes overlooking the sea below. It's truly a serene and special  place - I've spent many an hour there sketching over the past 3 years. The nuns have always made us feel very welcome, and once even offered to bring us some lunch!

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my  Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at either jackiesinfrance@hotmail.com or jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

A Painting A Week No 112 - Feta Tin, Skopelos, Greece

For Sale - 25th September 2012
Feta Tin, Skopelos
Size: 15 x 21cm
Price A$90
(Postage and handling included)

Here in Greece, feta tins have a multitude of uses once all the cheese has been eaten or sold. They're often used as pots, sometimes painted in bright colours, or like this one, just left au naturale. I came across this lonely example with its sprouting succulents, sitting on some steps in the cobbled laneways of the island of Skopelos.

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my  Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at either jackiesinfrance@hotmail.com or jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

Post No8 - 2012 Trip - Crete

We couldn't possilby spend all that time in Italy with 'the Australians' without showing them some of Greece, and after a few relaxing days back in Koroni to catch our breath, we drove up to Athens and caught a flight over to Crete. It was a new experience for us all, apart from a stay there for me way back in the 70's.

The first night we ventured only as far as Sissi, a small town on the water, buzzing with tavernas. In fact, we enjoyed it so much we stayed again the following night!

We took the scenic route and drove through some very dramatic countryside.

Next day we were off east towards Sita which I remembered from a visit in the 70's. 

We stopped off for a coffee in the famous Agios Nicholas which was as bustling as ever, and then continued on through the increasingly barren landscape to Sita for the night.

 Sitia had changed quite dramatically since my last stay. In my early days of painting, one of my first large acrylic paintings was from a photo I took when we stayed here in the 70's.  I am currently attempting an updated version, hopefully downplaying the apartment buildings up behind the harbour!

One other place I remembered from that visit was a little place called Myrtos, on the South Coast, just past Irepetra. We took the gamble and headed there for the night, and it paid off. Myrtos still has loads of charm, and a very nice laid back feel to it. It still seems to consist of mostly narrow streets with little whitewashed houses, a lot of them leading straight down to the blue sea. Its wonderful to see there are still some of these villages around.

Next it was time for a dose of Greek history, and we'd realised we would more than likely have to save Knossos until the next trip, so off we went to Phestos. This is a Minoan archeological site, where the Phestos disc was discovered.  It was amazingly hot there, but an fascinating place and set in amongst high mountains and lush plains.

 and saw plenty of  'lines in the landscape'

Once we reached the north coast, we spent the night in Rethymnon, an interesting place with its Venetian facades,

but the following day we moved on to have a look at Chania, and decided that was the perfect spot to spend the last couple of nights and have a break from the car. We stayed in a great hotel right smack bang on the waterfront amongst all the restaurants and didn't have to venture far for anything.  Having said that plenty of wandering was done as there was a maze of laneways in every direction, buzzing with life.  It is fairly touristy, but beautiful and it worked extremely well!

checking out the menus.....

 We also did do a short trip to nearby Stravros which is famous for as being where the movie Zorba the Greek was filmed, and having just watched the film again recently, it doesn't seem to have changed too much since then! If you know the fil, you can see the mine up on the mountain, and the tiny house, right by the beach.

Sadly, our titme in Crete went way too fast, and it was time to head back to Athens again for a couple of nights before putting Rita and Peter onto their flights.

Just a little footnote. There was actually some sketching done enroute this time as Australian Peter became my 'sketching buddy'. I'm soon hoping to be able to get my sketchbook into shape, fill in the odd blank page, and produce something to put online in the not too distant future.

Needless to say, I have many many beautiful photographs of all of the places we visited on this trip, in France, Italy, Switzerland and Crete, and they will be appearing on my Picasweb site soon, at which time I'll add a link.

A Painting A Week No 109 - Kolios Beach, Skiathos

For Sale - 21st August 2012
Kolios Beach, Skiathos
Size: 21 x 15cm
Price A$90
(Postage and handling included)

Kolios Beach is a lovely spot just near where I spend my time on the beautiful Greek island of Skiathos. There's been many a time when I've sat at this table, or one nearby, sipping an ouzo, or perhaps having an evening snack. Sadly, the taverna there didn't seem to be operating this year, but I guess there's always hope for next year.

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my  Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at either jackiesinfrance@hotmail.com or jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

A Painting A Week No 106

For Sale - 16th July 2012
Skiathos, Greece 2
Size: 21 x 15cm
Price A$90
(Postage and handling included)

I’m currently in northern Greece, and on the way here spent 9 days on the lovely island of Skiathos, hence this week’s painting. This is my 3rd year visiting Skiathos and each time I seem to slip easily into ‘creative mode’. I put this down to Yvonne’s inspiring company, and cool relaxing studio! Once again I've fallen for a view over the water but there’s so much to paint there that I’m always spoilt for choice. I do love the contrast of the sea, white houses and the orange roofs.  Needless to say there are more Skiathos paintings in the pipeline, and some from Skopelos as well, where we spent a couple of days exploring once Peter joined me.

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at either jackiesinfrance@hotmail.com or jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

A Painting A Week No 101

For Sale - 28th March 2012
Assos Harbour, Kefalonia
Size: 21 x 15cm
Price A$90
(Postage and handling included)

Last year we did a short trip with a Sydney friend to the Ioanian island of Kefalonia, and discovered this little town tucked in between the mountains and the sea. Apart from taking too many photos of the beautiful water and fishing boats, we sat under the umbrellas up against the blue railings and had a very sophisticated afternoon tea of baklava and krema karamella.

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on this link to my Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at either jackiesinfrance@hotmail.com or jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

A Painting A Week No 96

For Sale - 31st October 2011

Lunch in Gythio, Greece

Size: 21 x 15cm

Price A$90

(Postage and handling included)

Gythio is a town towards the bottom of the Mani Peninsula in the Peloponnese - the landscape we see across the bay from Koroni when its not covered in cloud!  The Mani is a very mountainous area, with rugged landscape and high peaks. Various ferries to some of the islands leave from Gythio, and its a good lunch spot!

If you would like to buy this painting, please click on the following link to my Art Weekly Online Shop, or if you'd rather deal with me direct, please email me at either jackiesinfrance@hotmail.com or jackie@jackiesherwood.com.

Kefalonia in June

Time for me to wake up and get blogging I think! June and July seem to have disappeared in a whirlwind of travelling, and now the big trip to the US, NZ and Australia is looming in the not too distant future.

A friend, Jaki G, flew into Athens in June for a visit but due to the demonstrations and strikes there at the time, we stayed in a small hotel on the outskirts, and then made a quick exit and headed north. The first stop was a favourite small town on the northern side of the Gulf of Corinth- heaven after the chaos of Athens!

Antikira just before sunset

Looking at the Delphi Stadium

Antikira is a great overnight stop for visiting Delphi, so we ventured off there in the morning and roamed around before the heat got too intense. Such an amazing place but I do find it a little difficult to get 'the mystical feel' of the place with so many tour groups - all those tour guides hollering in various languages sort of interrupts the flow somehow!

Then it was off to get a ferry over to the other side of the Gulf and on to Kefalonia for a few days.... except the ferry didn't run from  there any more.... ho hum..... so instead we sat in the lonesome taverna, had some wonderful souvlaki and discussed the sad state of Greece with the young owner, who was over for the summer from Philadelphia.  Well fed and watered, we headed off over the beautiful Norman Foster looking Patras Bridge and got onto the ferry, arriving in Poros, Kefolonia in the early evening - perfect!

Welcome to Kefalonia

Looking out Hotel Window in Poros

We virtually fell into a simple comfy hotel  right on the waterfront.














And celebrated our arrival with a mezze plate - to keep us going until dinner, which, as there seemed no reason to move, we also had in the hotel taverna. - one of  the things I love about Greece - everything at your fingertips! 

Next morning we drove across the bottom of the island, past Agostolli, which was badly damaged in the earthquake in the 1950's and has now practically been rebuilt.

We decided a swim was called for so we continued on to the most stunning beach, Myrtos.





The brilliant turquoise water along with the bright white rounded pebbles that made up the beach was a sight to behold, and these days, I'm seeing plenty of amazing beaches!

The pebbles may be not as soft as sand, but most definitely worth putting up with a few stones under your bum just for vision of it! 

The snack bar was a bit disappointing, being early season, but we survived until later in the afternoon, when we dragged ourselves away and arrived in Assos where we forced ourselves into afternoon tea, just to keep us going until dinner of course!

The one on the left was Peter's one of course - supposedly a creme caramel!

We were heading towards Fiscardo for the night, as we'd been told it was the one town on Kefalonia that hadn't been badly affected by the big earthquake in the 1950's and still had some of its Venetian buildings.

A lovely spot - small with brightly coloured buildings around a perfect harbour.

There just happens to be a Roman neocropolis in the foreground here - stop work!

Just what do you call this??

Sadly, it did have a slight feeling of 'rich riveria' with lots of large cruisers, yatchts and restaurants, but whilst dining that night we were nicely entertained by the various crews tootling back and forth in the tenders - money to burn if you can afford a crew 7! I was pleased to note that the only girls who were part of the crew of the two massive cruisers were a Kiwi and Australian - go girls!

Found a lovely family owned hotel in the backstreets, complete with a bouganvilla covered balcony but could only manage the one night as our ferry was taking off at the crack of dawn on the Monday, and we needed to be closer for our last night's stay on the island.

Headed south in the morning, this time down the eastern coast, stopped for lunch in Samos and once again felt in the need for a swim.

 So, off to check out Antisamos beach, just over the hill.

Another stunning beach, the bottom of which dropped away dramatically after 2-3 metres into the water, so that you felt you were swimming in a bottomless sea. There was a very sophisticated cafe on the edge of the beach - the food was stunning - more what you'd expect from a Sydney brassiere.

I must mention here too that both of the beaches we swam at were in the movie Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Most of the filming took place in Sami, where a huge and stunningly realistic set was built. It was so impressive in fact, that the locals did their best to retain it after the filming was finished, but it didn't happened.  The Italians' campsite was built on the beach at Antisamos where we had out sophisticated lunch and Myrtos is the beach where the bomb explosion took place in the film.

So then it was back down to Poros and our same friendly hotel, and an extra early start in the morning back to mainland Greece and a visit to Ancient Olympia on the way to Koroni. A fantastic few days and a new island explored!

Give an Australian a bottle of beer and a laptop.......

So it was a wonderful trip for the 3 of us, ending up with a stop off in Ancient Olympia and then some time spent in Koroni.  So many photos to share, particularly in this blog (and particularly since Blogger seems to have its own idea where they should end up!)  Lots more on my Picasaweb site.

https://picasaweb.google.com/111353970085495585185/2011KefaloniaAndOtherPartsTripWithJakiG