Art Walk Greece 2015 - Part 2

Even though I upgraded to a cabin, I wasn't able to sleep much on the ferry ride to Amorgos. We arrived at the Aegialis Hotel & Spa around 4:30 am on Wednesday, April 29, and fortunately I was able to get some sleep in my room. The hotel was nice enough to keep their breakfast up for us until 11:30 (it's usually put away by 10:30). We had a tour of the spa after breakfast, and many of us (including me) booked spa appointments for later in the week. We went into the nearby town of Aegialis for some shopping (where I bought a Pashmina shawl and some postcards) and lunch. Jane picked some poppies on our way back to the hotel for our painting class in the afternoon. None of us realized how delicate the poppies would be once they were picked. Even though we put them in water, they didn't last very long at all.

I also took pictures of designs that were painted into the concrete in the town and included some of those on my page.

On Thursday, April 30, we went to the monastery of Panagia Hozoviotissa, which is situated on the side of a cliff northeast of Chora. It was built early in the second millennium to protect a religious icon, dating from the year 812, from intruders. I counted 275 steps coming down from outside the monastery, and that didn't include the steps inside! We had planned on painting on location, but it was hot with little shade, and everyone was tired after climbing all those steps, so we changed our plans and had our lesson at the hotel after we returned. The lesson was on sketching a landscape, which was the view from the terrace of our hotel.

I had my spa treatment after the lesson, so I had to finish my sketch a couple of days later. It's the first time I've ever had a spa treatment, and I loved it. I had what they called the Detox Deluxe, which included the Hydro Therapy Spa Jet (which several people nicknamed the car wash), facial, scalp massage, full body exfoliation, and full body massage. It was quite wonderful.

On Friday, May 1, we toured an Herb Distillery in Lagada. The man who ran the distillery was very knowledgeable about all the local herbs and he seemed to be a very kind and gentle soul. We ate lunch in Lagada and had a lesson on quick sketching a long narrow landscape. The idea was to set your rectangle first, then sketch only as much as would fit into the space. I didn't have time to sketch from the restaurant, so I sketched the view from my balcony later in the afternoon instead. I added the design and journaling at the bottom later. I also had a pedicure in the afternoon, which was very nice as well.

Saturday, May 2 found us in Katapola, the harbor town in which our ferry arrived (and from which it would depart on Monday May 4). We had lunch near the harbor and then painted a church on location.

Everyone approached the sketching differently, and it was fascinating to see all the differences. Some sketched the whole church, some did parts, some included trees and/or other shrubbery, some used watercolor, one used pencil only, but all were wonderful.

On Sunday, May 3, some of us went back to Aegialis for more shopping (I bought a hat). The town is close enough to the hotel to walk, but the walk back to the hotel is all uphill. In the afternoon, we made our portfolios to hold all of our pages (most of us were working on a watercolor block, so after we finished a page and removed it from the block, it was loose). I haven't finished decorating mine, so I haven't taken a photo of it yet.

Monday, May 4 we headed to Mykonos. More in my next post.