Overlooking Thira, Santorini, Cyclades, Greece

Overlooking Thira lvl
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I'm finally working with the Inktense pencils (I like them) that I bought more than a year ago. This drawing is based on a photo I took on Santorini; it is postcard size and I have sent it off for a swap with the ArtSwappers Yahoo Group. I had never done anything like this before. Signing up for this has made me, at least briefly, a little more productive. I have made 25 postcards from a sheet of Fabriano Uno, for instance, and cleaned off a workspace that had gotten cluttered. And I have already sent two of the seven postcards I have promised to make.

I am more of a Preparer to Do Things than a Person who Actually Does Them; it is probably too late to change, but perhaps I can modify a bit. Hope for drastic change always reminds me of something a young woman who used to work with me said one time as we were riding in a car together to attend a meeting. Apropos of nothing, really, she suddenly said, "I need a face transplant."
There were two other women in the car, and all of us fell silent. We couldn't think of anything to say. It was true the young woman was unmarried and determinedly plain with uninteresting hair and a large nose. Yet, she was very smart, often funny, and petite and well-formed. We arrived at the meeting still silent, and with the miasma of terrifying self-hatred still in the car.

It's a funny thing, life. There was a long obituary in the New York Times for Solzhenitsyn. A lot of this I already knew, but it was also a sort of a trip down Memory Lane because I read the books as they became available, and it brought back all the Cold War incidents that I lived through on the periphery of my family and library life.
One shocking thing that I had not known. A. S. smuggled a "microfilm" (remember microfilm?) of The Gulag Archipelago and they were trying to publish it in New York, but he was still hoping for first publication in Russia (he remained a determined, not to say hard-nosed, Slavophile all his life and finally was able to go back to live in Russia for his last few years.). [My husband has explained to me whether to put the period inside or outside the parentheses, but the rule shifts and I haven't mastered it yet.]
Anyway, Solzhenitsyn changed his mind after the KGB found a "buried" copy of his manuscript and questioned his typist, Elizaveta Voronyanskaya. Shortly thereafter, she hanged herself. So it was published, in English first, to great acclaim in 1973. It made the most money of any of his books and he donated it ALL to a foundation to help refugees.
Sleep well, Elizaveta Voronyanskaya. I cannot imagine your life and your death, but it fills me with great sadness.

White Greek house with rounded edges

White Greek house with rounded edges
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I'm finally scanning my sketchbook from Greece. These white houses on the Cyclades seemed to be made of either bricks or rock and cement concretions covered with plaster or stucco and whitewashed or painted white. We saw some being built and some being repaired. One thing I noticed right away is that all the edges or corners of these houses, which make villages on the island rocks and hills--villages that reminded me of stacked sugar cubes--are rounded. It is interesting to try o draw this, when we are used to the sharp edges on the buildings we are familiar with.
Someone told me that the rounded edges on these houses were supposed to stop the sea winds from whistling all the time. The wind does blow fairly consistently. And they said it doesn't work.

Woman of antiquity

Woman of antiquity
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I have had fun all day computing with pictures. The most fun I have had in a long time, and I'll show you some fun stuff later.
This lady lived a long time ago. Her funerary statue was found on Delos. I am not too clear about these funerary monuments, but I think they date from Roman times. I doubt they were carved before death, but otherwise how would they resemble the dead? And was it important that thay did?
This lady became very dear to me when I visited the National Archealogical Museum in Athens on the last day of my trip to Greece. (I wish I had arranged to stay longer while I was there. You could spend a week in this museum and there are others!) I felt like I knew her. It was sort of a relief to find her there among the gods and goddesses. The statue is marble and the carving is very beautiful. She still has her nose and her arms and such lovely drapery. And she lived so long ago.

Goats under a tree

Goats under a tree
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Folegandros, Greece. The little brown building on the far right seems to be where the goats take shelter. While I was painting this a man in an orange shirt came to milk them. He will be in another sketch. This is one of the small watercolors I did in Greece. I need to work on the gradations to show the endless Aegean beyond. And you have to look quite hard to find the two white goats. This brings back that whole afternoon to me. There is just not enough time.

Gobble and Strut

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Originally uploaded by jhhymas

These big guys were roaming at large in a lot across the street from Maria's Apartments, where we were staying. The sight seemed so un-Mediterranean that it pleased us every day. The big birds did a lot of walking around and displaying tail-fans to not much discernible purpose. They both look like males to me, but I am not a turkey expert.
The photo shows how much difference there is in what you can call "white." And how a little touch of red brightens up everything.

From the heights of Milos

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Originally uploaded by jhhymas

They found the Venus de Milo on this island. She's really Aphrodite, and she is made of Parian marble from the island of Paros. Parian marble lets the light penetrate the surface a full millimeter more than Carrara marble, for instance. The picture shows what you can do on volcanic soils in the way of olive orchards, vineyards and other agriculture. In former days, they mined obsidian on this island and it was traded all over the ancient world. This island is still a source of bentonite and perlite. I don't know what they use bentonite for, but I have encountered perlite in potting soil mixes. I've been meaning to look bentonite up; things are so easy with Google.
This was a beautiful day, you could see far out into the Aegean, other islands, fields. rocks and dwellings. This is another of the photos that I will try to use as inspiration for a painting. Good night.

Cyclades Blues

Cyclades Blues
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

In towns on these Greek Islands, the houses are built adjacent to each other and abutting the walkways in front. These walks are paved in a variety of ways and sometimes painted, The houses are mostly painted white--relieved bvy an occcasional light pastel color. It makes a feast for the eye and the lens. It wold seem odd, though, living with your front door right at the sidewalk, and touching the next house. They seem quite small, too, but I never was inside one. They really make you want to pick up crayons or paints, quick!

Looking out over Santorini

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Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Red, orange or yellow flowers always stand out here amidst the prevailing blue and white. This was near the King Thira Hotel, where we stayed. The hotel was on the heights above much of the city. Everywhere you looked, it was pretty enough to be a postcard, if it wasn't already on the rack. Each day was a little too hot to be really comfortable, but not so hot as to cause misery. Already, I find it hard to believe I was really there.

Breakfast at King Thira's Hotel

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Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Every day in Santorini, this was our breakfast. The silver cup is filled with that delicious thick, creamy Greek yoghurt, It was wonderful with the peaches. All the Greek toast I had was striped like this. The cake was pretty, but too dry to eat. We could also have cereal and there was butter and jam for the toast. There was coffee, but I liked a glass of water. On two of the islands where we went, the water was non-potable in four languages: Greek, German, English and French. The tablecloths were fresh every day, and as everywhere on the islands the white and blue was made even more vivid by touches of orange or geranium red. My photographs are almost too blue. . .

The Cyclades shot every photographer takes

IMG_8628
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

And I took it too! It is hard to believe these white buildings in the blinding sun! I made it back OK and have a huge number of photographs to deal with. I am already wishing I had used another camera and etc, etc, etc, fuss-fuss-fuss. The buildings reminded me of sugar cubes and toy houses tacked onto the hillsides. The people were very nice and helpful. The water of the Aegean is an unbelieveable blue; we kept trying out different tubes of watercolor. Cobalt is good, but not quite right--my sister-in-law voted for Prussian Blue. I also tried manganese blue hue and various mixtures, wihtout feeling I had found the definitive answer,

I ate a tomato and cucumber salad almost every day. They were just lightly flavored with oregano and sometimes had Greek olives and sliced red onions in them, too. Yum! I come back to find out there is a tomato famine here. . .