Feral Cats of Milos

Milos Resident, oil, 20x20 Available

It was a new experience for me to be around so many feral cats while on the island of Milos. They were everywhere. Literally and figuratively. You heard the random cat fight but overall they seemed to mind their own business and leave you alone. Unless you were eating. Then they would sit ever so quietly and watch you. They rarely fought at the table, believe it or not. They seemed to know that there would be enough for all or nothing for any of them. The couple sitting at this table did not feed the ever hopeful cats. Here is but one example:

Here is another typical scene and yes this cat is On the table; her mother would not allow her near "her table." :

So, to honor all the beautiful wild cats of Milos, I painted this portrait. It may not be the last but I started with this one because the cat on the white wall reminded me of John Singer Sargent's paintings from Capri. He had dancers among the white walls but I had cats.

If anyone has an idea for a title for this painting, I would love to hear from you.

Painting the Figure

Sunday evening as I was preparing dinner a friend called me to tell me that the instructor of a week long figure workshop she had signed up for had just let her it was okay for me to substitute for her the first two days of the workshop. My friend was not able to take the whole week off from work. I offered to fill in for her if she wanted me to keep her abreast of what was going on and take notes for her. I offered because my friend spoke so highly of this instructor and she keeps inviting me to join her in these workshops, so here was an opportunity for me to get a feel for what she was saying. We had spoken about it a few weeks ago so when she called Sunday night I had quite forgotten about the whole thing. And the class started Monday morning.

I was able to make it work into my schedule although this week was not a prime time for me to be taking two full days away. What swayed me to go was the opportunity to paint from a model. I have not done that in years and years. Here is the portrait from Monday.

9x12 head study in oil

The instructor had us do a monochrome portrait in the morning. In the afternoon you could finish the portrait continuing with monochrome (5 values using burnt umber and white) or add temperature. I worked on top of my monochrome portrait adding temperature (not color). You can still see just the value on her collar bones and shoulders where I did not quite finish painting over the morning study. All things considered, I was happy with this portrait. Painting from life is a whole different ballgame. I really enjoyed the exercises. The model had such good bone structure too.

Tuesday we did another head study adding color. I wiped that one off as it was fine but nothing I cared to keep. In the afternoon we were to stay with temperature and value alone or add color. I added color. Her skin was so fun to paint. I would have like to have been able to 'finish' this piece but I was happy enough with it as is, until I dropped it on my garage floor face down when I was unloading the car. I had not photographed it yet, so here it is dried grass and all.

12x16 figure study in oil

An artist friend I had seen at the Summer Art Market a few weeks ago invited me to join her at the Arts Students League of Denver to paint long pose uninstructed. This little exercise was just the thing to get me to want to go to just paint from life and be among other artists.

Syrmata or Greek Island Boat Garages

Boat Garages, oil on linen panel, 12x12

Here is the first painting completed from my recent trip to the Greek island of Milos. I painted it small to see if I might want to paint it larger at some point. This is in the little village of Mandrakia, which if you Google 'Greek boat garages' most of the images that come up are from this particular bay. Mandrakia is a collection of mostly vacation homes but it does boast its own little chapel and a part time/quasi legal Taverna during the summer.  I picked this particular boat garage to highlight because the 'owner' is one of the local fishermen whom my friend knows. Stellios is one of the few year round residents of Mandrakia. He takes it upon himself to paint all the steps down to the water every year. His is the black boat, painted black after the loss of his wife. His 'garage' is open as he was working on someone else's boat on this particular day.

We were fortunate to have coffee with one of the other boat garage owners from whose garage I took this photo. Yannis has more of a man cave thing going on although his boat is berthed inside as well. He fixed us fresh coffee in his tiny kitchen and brought it out to his little patio. I took this still life that was set up where we enjoyed our first afternoon on Milos.

These boat garages are grandfathered in, as technically you cannot own water front property on the island. So people like me are free to wander around since it is considered public property. No new garages are legal to build.

This is the long view from where I was staying and it looks right down onto this little cove. At the end of the gully there is a small beach, which when we were there we had to ourselves.