Fisherman’s friend
Posted: July 30, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: boat painting, Chania, Crete, Greece, plein air painting 13 CommentsAs much as I try to complete a painting on site, it’s not always possible. Here’s one from our trip to Crete in the spring. I started this on location in April but was interrupted when a sponge seller on another boat docked in front of me. Apparently I was in his spot, but he politely waited while I packed up my gear.
Before the sponge boat pulled in, I was happily painting this scene of a fisherman untangling his nets and chatting with a friend. I witnessed this often in the morning in Chania. Usually two fisherman in side-by-side boats, having coffee, and working on their nets. I’m not sure if they were just coming in or on their way out but I suspect it was the former. This time the conversation was between the friend on the pier and the fisherman just below. In a scene like this I always try to draw the figures first in case they move away. The boats are likely to stay there longer so I draw them second.
As I mentioned, I always prefer to finish the painting on site but this time it wasn’t possible. I brought the watercolour home and it sat on my drawing table for months. It was really only missing details of nets, rigging and some waves in the water, so I added those in this week. Hopefully it still has the freshness of a scene painted in the early morning in one of my favourite places in Greece.
A few in blue
Posted: May 9, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chania, Crete, flower pots, flowers, Greece, plein air watercolour, pots, watercolour 19 CommentsIf you read the last issue of my newsletter “The Wheelbarrow“, you’ve probably already seen this little blue wheelbarrow. It’s one that my husband spotted tucked away in a corner of the Botanical Park and Gardens of Crete. It was so perfectly rusty and of course so perfectly blue, that I had to sketch it and add it to my collection of wheelbarrow sketches. A few people asked what blue I used to paint this. It was definitely a Holbein pigment because during this trip I was testing out that brand in my two palettes, but it wasn’t one single colour. I likely used a combination of Turquoise, Horizon Blue and Cerulean Blue, mixed in with a little bit of Burnt Sienna, of course.
I was fascinated by the rows of potted plants that people place outside their doors in the narrow streets of Chania, and of course by the shadow patterns their shapes create. On many occasions I saw these pots, as well as many others, being lovingly tended by their owners. This particular road was not much wider than the width of one car, but I set up my stool against the opposite wall and managed to wedge my easel in there too. Not long after I started to paint, a white van pulled into that narrow space, totally blocking my view and almost knocking over my easel. I was ready to pack up my gear and finish my painting indoors when a woman emerged from a door next to me. I understand a few words of Greek but language was not necessary in this instance. I understood from her gestures that she was telling the driver to move his van so that I could paint. With smiles of appreciation and my best efcharistó to both the driver and the woman, I happily finished my painting and moved on.
Seven port views plus a lighthouse
Posted: May 7, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: boats, Chania, Crete, Greece, harbour, plein air painting, watercolour 43 CommentsSometime after my first week of touring in Crete, I gave up on posting remotely. I am just never satisfied with images that are photographed from my iPhone. I much prefer to scan paintings on my trusty Epson Perfection V600 scanner, clean the images up in Photoshop (bring the whites back to white, make sure the colour matches the original, etc.) and then post them. So here I am, one week after returning home, finally over the jet lag and back at my desk scanning paintings and sketches.
In all, I painted 8 views around the Old Venetian Port of Chania, Crete (mostly 16″ x 12″). I originally thought it was seven but then realized that my final painting of the lighthouse is really the entrance to the historic port so I added that to the count. There would have been a ninth view if it hadn’t rained on my last day. Forgive me if you have already seen a few of these but the colour is not accurate in the previous images so here they are again.
I could paint this port for a year or more and never get tired of it. If you look it up on Google maps you’ll see that it has several bays. The one on the western side is lined with shops and restaurants and it has a wide strolling promenade. The eastern side is where you’ll find the docks and the boats — little fishing boats, great white yachts and catamarans, speedboats that you can charter to take you to beaches inaccessible by car, and strangely, a mini red submarine that allows you to have an underwater view if you choose. You’ll also find the remaining Neoria there. These are the old Venetian shipyards with the peaked facades that you can see in the third painting below.
On the outer edges of the port there’s also a long, narrow seawall that takes you to the lighthouse. I painted in a shaded spot along that wall for several of these paintings. In all of these, I tried to convey a sense of architectural history (bits of the remaining Byzantine and Roman walls, the clay-roofed colourful Venetian buildings, the only remaining Ottoman mosque that forms the corner of the Western section of the port) as well as a sense of what the port is like at different times of day. I was there during the period around Easter when it’s quite crowded so I included lots of people, but I imagine that a place as beautiful as this is crowded well into the autumn.
It was wonderful to live a bit like a local for a few weeks in Chania — to set off in the morning with my palette and easel in my backpack, not knowing where in the port I would stop to paint. I don’t think I’ve ever had the luxury of so much painting time in any other place.
In the next post: the sketches from our frequent road trips to different villages in western Crete.
A good Friday for painting
Posted: April 18, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: boats, Chania, Crete, Greece, harbour scene, watercolours 8 CommentsEach day it has been getting a little warmer in Crete, which means that the snow on the White Mountains will soon be gone. I wanted to have those distant peaks in at least one of my paintings so today I walked out to the Old Sea Wall and painted in the shade of the St. Nicholas bastion. From that perfect spot, I had a view of the harbor and the constant stream of pedestrians enjoying the holiday here in Greece. I could just as easily have painted the bastion itself, from a spot on the promenade across the way, but that will be for another day. There’s no shortage of things to paint here. Painted this one on a pad of Arches CP paper, 16” x12”.
Kalimera
Posted: April 14, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chania, Crete, Greece, harbour scene, watercolours 14 CommentsIt was a good morning at the Old Venetian Harbor in Chania. The sun was hitting the buildings at just the right angle AND I found a shady spot with a clear view across the bay.
I love painting these types of scenes. Lots of complexity, obvious value contrasts and plenty of opportunity for calligraphic brushstrokes.
It’s the start of Easter week holidays in Greece. Whereas last week it was a little quiet in the old part of town, this week the restaurants are filling up, the narrow streets are crowded with people and everyone seems to be strolling along the harbour.
I painted this on a pad of Arches CP paper, 16” x 12”, and I can say with much certainly that I used almost every colour on my palette for this one.
