Lockdown Sketches – Week Two

Week two of this new series of daily sketchbook drawings done during the Corona Virus lockdown in Greece… Spring is in full force here at the moment and the geraniums are at their peak. I’m happy to see new, tender leaves on this inherited hibiscus plant which until now resembled a dead stick. This trio actually live in the corner of our road, along with a few more pots, so I used a bit of artistic licence when adding the lively blue sky behind them.

Day nine saw me getting up close and personal with a fig tree. The tiny, fresh leaves are rapidly unfurling at the moment and the trees are filling out with bright green leaves at an astonishing rate. There’s a semi-wild fig tree in our street which drops its fruit all over the street come summer, making rather sticky, wasp attracting jam in the road.

Day ten is a sketch of the view towards the church from Harakopio car park. I snapped a photo of this view last August, when summer visitors were staying in the house with the jaunty washing line. For most of the year, the house is unoccupied, so there’s not usually washing there. Pity, as it looks so great there. I love the less than glamorous rear view of all the shops too.

Day 11 was again drawn from my stash of photographs – this time from a rare trip to The Mani a couple of years ago. This decorative, rusty old door was spotted somewhere in Aghios Nikolaos when we were over there to check out the new Pulse art event in September.

On day twelve it is back to drawing my pots. I’ve had several of these feta cheese tins for quite a while, having scrounged them from Billy’s supermarket in Chrani. I can tell you, the smell in the car with a bunch of used feta tins in the back, on a hot summer’s day is not so great. Having banged a few holes in the bottom and painted them all in ‘Santorini Blue’ gloss paint, they have been gracing the street and garden for ages now. I love the turquoise peeping out between the plants and they look particularly fab with deep pink geraniums in them.

Day thirteen is a drawing of one of the small chapels in Koroni Monastery. Many years ago I was lucky enough to be shown inside this little room by ‘The Artist Nun’ (I don’t know her name). It was full of her paintings – canvases and works on paper of all shapes and sizes, in a range of mediums – I think her favourite was oils. She used to exhibit and sell her paintings in Kalamata before becoming a full time resident at the Koroni Monastery. Nowadays she does not have so much time for painting as there is a lot of work to do in the Monastery. She mostly now just paints the small stones which are sold in the monastery gift shop. I often wonder if this little chapel still contains her paintings…

For the last sketch of the second week of lockdown I couldn’t resist drawing a new geranium bud. They are so fresh and vibrant at the moment. I seem to have rather a lot of pink geraniums both in the avli and in pots in the street. They must be stronger than all the others which have perished over the years. Each year I long for more red ones, but they rarely last longer than a year or so.