Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Art Walk Greece 2015 - Part 1

I just returned (at 3am Saturday, thank you very much) from a wonderful 2 weeks in Greece with terrific art teacher Jane LaFazio, Carlo Roberts of The Blue Walk, and 14 other intrepid travelers and journal artists. I will be sharing some of my experiences (and journal pages) with you over the next couple of weeks.

You may have already seen this sketch I did of my new suitcase before I left, but I'm including it again here for a more complete record.



I arrived at my hotel in Athens (The Electra) at about 8:30 pm on Saturday 4/25. Sunday morning, I met Carlo (our tour director) and a few others at breakfast. Pene and I decided to do some shopping that morning and then we took the Athens Open Tour bus tour in the afternoon, which gave us a good overview of the city. We all met back at the hotel at 4:00 to introduce ourselves and hear a bit about our "agenda" for the trip. Then we walked to our restaurant for drinks and dinner, where I did a quick sketch of our view and my drink.



On Monday, I discovered that several others were going to the Acropolis, so I joined them. Pene, Ellen and I walked there, while Mary, Helen, and Louise took the bus. It is such an amazing site, and so hard to comprehend how old it is. We climbed LOTS of steps. Pene, Ellen, Louise and I walked back while Mary and Helen took a taxi. We met everyone back at the hotel at 11:00 and then we all walked to the National Garden, where we had our first lesson.


I did some shopping in the afternoon and then we had our fabulous welcome dinner.

Tuesday morning I went to the Acropolis Museum, which is a beautiful new building with so much information that really helped me to understand more about the Acropolis. I returned back to the hotel by 11:00. We all walked to the Church of Panagia Kapnikarea, which is a Greek Orthodox church and one of the oldest churches in Athens. I used a Tombow marker (with water soluble ink) for my sketches.



Tuesday evening, we took a ferry from Piraeus (the port city near Athens) to the island of Amorgos. It was a long ferry ride (from 5:30 pm to about 3:30 am). More in my next post.

4 comments:

The Idaho Beauty said...

Equal parts impressed with your drawings and jealous of your itinerary! Looking forward to more.

Sketchbook Wandering said...

Ooh ooh ooh!! Thanks for sharing!!!!! Love it!!!!

Kathy A. Johnson said...

I've been eagerly waiting to hear about your trip, and this is such a good start! Greece is one of my all-time favorite places. I've been to Athens and the Acropolis, but not to Amorgos. I love your sketches, and know that you'll enjoy reminding yourself of your trip by looking through your sketchbook. I wasn't sketching yet when I went to Greece, and it was another traveler's beautiful sketchbook that really ignited my desire to keep travel sketchbooks.

Billie B. said...

Cheryl, I too have been waiting, none too patiently, to hear about your big adventure. Love it all so far. Can't wait for more posts. Your sketches and journal pages are well illustrated and interesting.