Three White Pots

This painting arose out of my distant memories of the Cycladic Islands. It’s no particular place…. it could be somewhere in Paros, or Santorini, Naxos or Ios… or any of those beautifully sunbaked Cycladic isles. The building may be a church, or it may be a private dwelling…

This painting started with the sky and evolved from there. I wanted big blocks of white set against the busy, textured blues of the background. It’s a simplified, highly textured, yet graphic representation of beautifully planted, whitewashed pots with a backdrop of a Greek summer sky.

The mixed media painting was created with layers of acrylic paint, wax and ink on watercolour paper. The sky was created first with layers of paint and wax. Then the image was drawn into the sky and layers of paint and wax were added and scratched into to emulate whitewashed plaster and painted pottery. The bright geraniums were built up from torn fragments of my decorated papers and the lines strengthened with black ink. The final painting was sprayed with a protective coat of clear satin varish.