Showing posts with label Clifftop Monasteries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clifftop Monasteries. Show all posts

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Kastraki, Greece

Meteora is nearly to the border of Greece and Albania. I took the bus from Athens and stopped at the end of the line which was Kastraki, a very cute little town. The bigger nearby town, Kalambaka, is where most people stay and take the charter bus to see the clifftop monasteries. I, of course, had to be different!

Kastraki won my heart. I stayed in a small family owned place with their own restaurant. Need I say, the food was outstanding?! The day I planned to hike up to the monasteries, it rained so hard this Washingtonian stayed inside to paint.

After having one of mother's fabulous meals, I sat at my table and drew the street scene. It felt like a pen and ink composition was calling......


And then I added the watercolors.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Sketching in Greece

Need I say, Greece is an awesome place to visit!

Not only did I take about a thousand photos, but manage to do some sketching along the journey. Since I traveled with just a backpack, I took a very tiny Windsor & Newton watercolor set, a set of twelve watercolor pencils, one pencil, and one permanent pen marker. My sketch pad is a good quality paper 9" x 6".

It was challenging adjusting to a limited palette and different media as well as the very warm climate of Greece. I learned that doing a watercolor wash was impossible because the water dried so quickly. I found myself drawn to details and did several sketches with pen and ink.

Sometimes I traveled to a lovely spot to paint and other times I sat in a taverna painting after consuming some fabulous Greek food.

In the next several blogs I will be sharing my sketches and experiences.

After a couple days in Athens, I traveled to Meteora to see the clifftop monasteries. Out of a rather flat landscape, you will see unusual shaped mountains with layers of color that seemed to flow down its sides.

I planned to hike up to the monasteries the day after I arrived, but it rained solidly and not even this Washingtonian was willing to go out in the downpour. Instead I spent the day painting. Here is the view from the balcony of my room in Kastraki.


It was raining so hard that several waterfalls formed down the crevasses in the rocks. Can you see them?

I did another version with just the mountains. They are rather organic wouldn't you agree?


Thankfully the rain subsided and I stayed another day to visit the monasteries.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Greece Clifftop Monasteries of Meteora

A friend told me of a "must see" place to visit in Greece.

Six monasteries are built on natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains, in central Greece. Metéora means "suspended rocks", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above" and is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece.

Preview of my next adventure.....







Yes, I am heading off to explore Greece for the next month.

Also on my "must see" list.....

Oia, Santorini where I will be staying for five days.



And a week on Crete in Plakias as a base for further explorations.



Who knows where else I may go?

I will have photos and watercolor paintings to share when I return.

Stay tuned!