First Greek Watercolor Painting

Having spent three wonderful weeks traveling in Greece, I took many photographs and did several sketches. Finally, I am creating watercolor paintings from my travels.

I must admit that have developed a fondness for olive trees. I love trees in general, but the olive tree became a focal point as I traveled. The bark has these twisted looking vines with wonderfully shaped holes and the branches stretch out very gracefully. The leaves are silver green; they extend from the branches in all directions especially when laden with lots of olives. The branches in clusters look spotted with olives so you have this wonderful contrast of circles and lines. I learned that it is VERY easy to get lost in an olive grove.

Here is my first watercolor painting of the olive grove.

Second Day in Plakias, Crete

At the Plakias Youth Hostel, Chris, the manager, has many "off the beaten path" hikes to share. I decided to hike to One Rock, a secluded beach....sounded perfect!

I was excited to get started instead of waiting for others who were still sleeping off the previous evening's fun. This might have been a mistake, because the "easy to follow" printed directions from Chris were not so easy to follow. I missed the first stone marker; good thing I knew which direction to go. I learned that it is very easy to get lost in an olive grove.


Damnoni Beach is the first beach you come to after hiking through the hills and olive groves.



One Rock Beach from above (see the one rock?).


I climbed down and spent the afternoon swimming and painting.


I must admit, there were a few other people there too swimming and sun bathing. I waited for this photo.

My watercolor rendition......


Could not resist another sunset!