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!

Where Did 2012 Go? - A Year in Retrospect

Here I am on the first few days of 2013 and I sit and ponder where on earth 2012 disappeared to.  We did an enormous amount of travelling admittedly, and unfortunately this does take its toll on my ability to get into some real big messy painting as I intended. I've been pleased to continue on with my Art Weekly though, and am hoping to continue on with these, perhaps in a somewhat looser way in the coming year.

So, now in this blog, I feel the need to run back through the year 'in retrospect', mark the highlights and comment upon things creatively - any time apart from this is probably spent either sitting on the beach, or in a taverna/restaurant/cafe somewhere...... Its a fairly long blog (well, it is a whole year after all), so perhaps grab and coffee, or a glass of wine and enjoy.

January - we returned overland from France to Greece following a great visit to Sydney and New Zealand, with stopovers both ways in Los Angeles, and even though I shouldn't include it, as it was technically not 2012 (between Xmas and New Year), a few days visiting San Francisco, which was brilliant.

February - wintering down in Koroni gave me a chance to continue exploring with collage

 and different mixed media techniques. 

I also came up with some ideas for cards using some of my hundreds of Koroni photos...

March

With the weather warming up a little, it was great to get outdoors to sketch, something I did more of in 2012 than ever before.

I also started sketching daily, admittedly, something that fell into a heap once we started travelling again, but I did really enjoy it and am promising myself to get back into the whole daily thing in 2013.

April - Lots more sketching.

May - off again to France, this time to meet up with Aussie friend, Rita in Nice, before heading to Venice, the Italian Lakes and Switzerland.

We then rendezvoused with another Sydney friend, Peter, and spent a couple of nights in Moneglia, our favourite stop-off spot for visiting Cinque Terre.....

and then, into Tuscany, for a week in a great house in Barga, just north of Lucca. Whilst we were staying there, we were able to re-explore some of our favourite places, Lucca, Sienna, Florence, Pisa.

 Despite all the travelling, talking, eating and drinking, some sketches did actually arise from this whole trip and I am still working on getting the full Sketchbook completed.

June - still with our travelling companions, a few days in Koroni, then a great week cruising around Crete.

July - after another short stint in Koroni, to catch our breaths, I spent a wonderful week at Villa Nicara in Skiathos with my lovely friend, Yvonne, who always inspires me with her wonderful paintings http://paintingskiathos.wordpress.com/.

We both worked hard with lots of different creative stuff happening, as well as plenty of eating, talking and relaxation.

Peter came to meet me and we spent a few days on the island of Skopelos, before heading up to northern Greece to spend some time with his Mum. The only vaguely creative thing I can claim from the stay in Northern Greece is photographs - I was fascinated by the plastic boxes at the Kavala market!

August - mostly spent on the beach in Koroni, or possibly having a siesta to escape the relentless heat during our hottest month.  Despite this though, I joined Gill and her fellow On Location Sketchers for weekly jaunts to all sorts of lovely local spots.

September - more On Location Sketching

October -  back overland through Italy to France, this time with my eldest son, James, in tow. We travelled in my little 'cabrolet', which although fairly tight for space, but was lots of fun, particularly as the weather in Italy was brilliant.  I did get a little sketching done along the way, but should have done a whole lot more.

November - despite various car problems, we made it back, and settled yet again into Koroni, more sketching and also my very exciting foray into 'teaching' Acrylic Painting.
http://artistswindow.com/new/2012/12/acrylic-paintingweek-four/.  Considering these girls only had 3 or 4 morning sessions, they did brilliantly.

.

December - once again, back to France for visa stuff, this time we flew into Barcelona and spent some time there. What an amazing place to be just prior to Christmas, so busy and lively, despite the cold.

Phew - as I said it's been a busy year! No wonder I feel exhausted and that it flew by. I guess as far as creativity throughout the year goes, I can at least say I worked hard on my sketching, continued with my collages, and managed to keep up with the weekly art.  2013 will be the start of a whole new creative journey, and I'm determined to continue exploring new techniques, including collage, and more impasto style painting.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE. Here's to even more fun, laughter and creativity in 2013 for each and everyone of you.

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.