Agrigento

Rock wall and olives at Agrigento. Watercolor on paper, 15" x 11".

The day we spent visiting the ancient Greek temples at Agrigento, Sicily, is etched in my memory less for the temples themselves, as spectacular as they were, but for the landscape and the feeling of the long walk that leads from one building to another. It was a beautiful day, struck with that strong, bright Mediterranean sun that sets shadows in sharp relief and shows colors at their brightest; as for generations of artists before me, that light and color are compelling to my northern eyes that, once experienced, I continue to long for them. Maybe that's why I keep coming back to these scenes, trying to capture something of that feeling.

The "Sicilian wall" in my studio.

The painting at the top of this page was done over two sessions, on two days. Below is the earlier stage, at the end of the first day. I was dissatisfied with my photographs of this painting. I think the reduction in size as well as the photographic process itself results in a loss of immediacy and vibrancy -- probably that's just an inevitable limitation of sharing work online. The bottom detail below captures it best, but it also looks more accurate in the photo of my studio above.

This is after about an hour of drawing and laying in the first washes.

 

Detail of the finished painting.

 

And another detail. 

 

A niche that once housed an early Christian burial, long after the Greeks occupied this valley.

The vibrant ochre color of the rocks at Agrigento, which were full of fossils, created a stunning but entirely natural contrast with the bright blue sky and the sea beyond, and yet that was softened by the silvery olive trees, some of which were very old, with their twisted trunks and branches. At the end of the ancient temple road was the oldest olive tree I've ever seen; I made a drawing of it recently that, I'm happy to say, was bought by a dear friend, perhaps for some of the same reasons I loved it in person. That tree seemed to embody the spirit of the Greeks for me. I went up to it, laid my hand on its trunk, and stayed with it for a while.

NOTE: In a radical move, I've changed the layout of the blog slightly, putting the sidebar on the right (better for phone viewing, since the images sometimes got cut off in mobile view) and taking away the sidebar's black background. Please let me know what you think or how it works for you. Do most of you read the blog in a feed reader anyway?

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[am]

This works fine for me. Your blog is on my Blogger Reading List. Is that a feed reader?

Your drawings and paintings of Greece are beautiful, especially the ancient olive tree. I have not been to Greece but I grew up in Northern California. Olive trees thrive just north of where I lived. Greece is at the same latitude. The light and landscape are very similar to what I remember from my first 24 years. A Greek family lived a few houses away from ours and another Greek family a few blocks away and were part of a thriving Greek community on the San Francisco peninsula.

Thank you!

[Pascale Parinda]

The blog looks great (browsing in Safari).

And I love that olive tree.

[Peter Z]

The blog change is great, though the comment field doesn’t respond to the screen size. But the paintings are purely gorgeous.

[Kristin berkey-abbott]

I love the paintings. I read the blog on a computer screen, not a phone screen. I try to go to your blog from my blog, in case you're tracking how people find you--but I like the Facebook notification that you've posted something new.

[Beth]

AM, thanks for the feedback and liking the artwork. This particular painting is from a Greek site on the southern coast of Sicily, but the light is just the same. I'm hoping to go back to Greece in the fall - we both just love it there.

Pascale, Thanks for the comment and feedback. Glad to know it's OK in Safari.

Thanks for the feedback on the blog changes, Peter, and for liking the paintings too!

Thanks, Kristin -- that's helpful! I really appreciate it that you keep reading here! I read your blog too, even though I rarely comment...

[Dave Bonta]

I usually read on Feedly, but clicked through to see the redesign. Looks OK on my laptop, in Firefow, though I find the main column a bit too wide for the type size for comfortable reading. More critically, the theme isn't responsive, so no one on a phone or even a tablet will be able to read without endlessly scrolling back and forth.

[Natalie]

Wonderful watercolours Beth, Greece really inspired you. If you and Jon were to go to the island of Aegina (short ferry ride from Athens) one day during August, you would meet up with Minkey and Philip who have gone there regularly for about 30 years. I've been there twice. Lovely place and there's now a classical music festival every summer.