What do Artists do on Holiday?
So, we went off on holiday to the lovely Greek island of Samos, the first proper holiday for a while. We planned for rest, sunbeds, swimming, eating, you know, the sort of stuff regular people do on holiday. The first few days we did all those things but I am ashamed to say, that I felt restless, uneasy. On the third day I started collecting bits of salt-dried, sea-tumbled, plastic in beautiful harmonic colours. I got out my paints and didled about trying to be Paul Klee (too horrible to show) finally managed a freehand fairly spontaneous watercolour of my husband (too personal to show).
Later in the evening we stopped at a local café on our way to dinner and I saw three wonderful old ladies sitting together and something about the strength of their faces made me want to get my pencil out. None of them spoke English, one spoke a little French about as well as me, so we didn’t get very far. Fortunately the café owner acted as interpreter and negotiated a drawing session for me the following evening, I immediately felt better, re-oriented, purposeful.
When my children were small, I used to spend a lot of my holiday painting anything I could get my eyes on. My husband would happily take the children off, knowing that I would reciprocate while he went fishing, we had an understanding. I am now wondering about other artists, am I particularly obsessive? In fact the only holiday where I made no creative effort at all was directly after the finish of my M.A. studies. I sat drained of all creativity, on a beach unable to be a holiday maker without a creative process.
When I got to the café the following night, the ladies were there waiting impassively. I learned from the owner of the café, that they were in their eighties and had been friends since primary school and separated only by war. Unfortunately my small sketchbook ruled out a group drawing and I was forced to draw them singly. Toula went first and as I got into the drawing which had to be fast (20 minutes-ish each) Aphrodite kept bobbing up and going behind me to see and gave a running commentary to her compatriots-catching sight of her face she seemed deeply unimpressed. Aphrodite sat next and visibly softened under my intense gaze, I think won over by the attention and then lovely Maria. It was a wonderful experience for me as relieved of the necessity to speak, I could completely focus on their unfamiliar faces and there was still the transaction of communication, a heightened awareness of each other.
This was the real start to my holiday, from that point every excursion seemed to lead to another encounter. The museum in Samos Town is truly amazing, I spent a morning there intending several drawings but never got past a beautiful statuette of a Kuroi, boy soldier. While drawing I met and talked to several interesting people including museum staff and visitors.
Likewise, at our favourite restaurant I saw a young waitress and I was struck by her open face and wonderful way with customers, it was clear she loved her job. The beautiful Patrizia happily agreed to sit for me. Drawing her was a joy especially as she spoke good English and slowly I learned more about her. Of mixed Italian and Dominican Republic parentage, she was staying in a room behind the Bakery and worked every day of the season with no time off, she was returning to Italy within the week.
I returned with photocopies to the café where the three old ladies were completely underwhelmed to see me, until I promised to put them in the blog at which they became very animated. I would love to know whet they really thought about the drawings…
There’s more in Part 2.
