Project title: The Reflected Lights of Elounda
Medium: Driftwood, Pyrpgraphy and Acrylic Paint
Date: 25th May -2 June 2022
Recently I was very fortunate to be invited by Greek Artisit and owner of Elounda Island Villas, Leda Alexpoulou, to become their Artist in residence.
The residency entailed responding directly to this unique place by creating an Art installtion for Elounda Island Villas gardens.
I am fascinated by the stripes created by the reflections of Elounda town’s lights on the sea at night as viewed from the Islet. I have painted them many times but needed to created more than a painting, something that was connected to the Spinalonga Peninsula…..
The creative process of my Artists residency began with hiking the islet of the Spinalonga Peninsula in search of driftwood washed up from the Aegean Sea. It was fun but hot work and couldn’t have managed getting all the driftwood back to Elounda without my husband, Steve’s, help. The intention being to use the beautiful flotsam and Jetson, gifted by the sea, to create a canvas for my Art installation for Elounda Island Villas.
The next process of my Art installation, with the help of Steve’s building skills was to make using only the driftwood we sourced from hiking the Islet of the Spinalonga Peninsula, a canvas for me to create my Artistic response to evening reflections of the lights of Elounda on the Aegean sea as viewed from the Islet. I made a paper template of the driftwood canvas which I use to design my Artwork which I will eventually pyrography burn and acrylic paint onto the driftwood.
The next process for this work was my painting response which could only happen after sunset…I sat and observed how the reflections of the lights changed as the sky darkened, then I did a watercolour painting study of the light reflections on the Aegean sea.
In the daylight, I created an abstract design of the pattern of light reflections I saw. Then transferred the design onto my driftwood canvas ready for pyrography burning and acrylic painting.
Using traditional skills of pyrography I hand burn each mark onto the driftwood using different pyrography tool tips; It feels like you are sketching with fire. Then with only Acrylic high key primary colours and white I created colours that represent the specific light reflections that I have studied and painted in my watercolour painting study.
I am fascinated by the way the different types of timber we found and used as the canvas reacted differently to the same temperature of the pyrography machine as I burnt. The dryer softwood squeaked, the older softwood smelt of the Aegean and the hardwood fought the burn.
The vertical burnt marks are my interpretation of the reflections of the silhouetted mountains in the water and the colour stripes are the reflections of lights of Elounda town as seen from Elounda Island Villas on the Spinalonga Peninsula. The occasional horizontal block of burn or colour signifies the gentle movement of the water
