Paintings and drawings from Greece and Mount Olympus

harfo32

New member
Thanks to the Forum and system Danmarc I have discovered the Opus Galleriet site. I have opened an album there and added some of my paintings and drawings of Mount Olympus and Greece. I have been looking for a decent uncluttered site like this for some time! And it's free! http://opusserver.dk/galleri/index.php?cat=10112
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John Foss
 

harfo32

New member
Thanks, Christine. My only motive for painting is pleasure - though if I am hard up earning some money is also an incentive! I spent the summer in Nafplion in the Peloponese (Southern Greece) a few years back living solely on the sale of my paintings. I was quite surprised at how well they sold, really. I had really intended just to have a holiday painting! I was painting in the square - it is an attracive old town - and without my noticing it quite a crowd had gathered behind me watching. Painting is a very social activity. One of the crowd was the Manager of the National Bank, and he asked me if I would do a picture of his Bank to hang in the main banking hall. It's a very ugly building! I had to use considerable imagination to make it look more interesting - but it was quite successful and after that I got a lot of commissions from hotel and restaurant owners! From a financial point of view I was quite happy - and I got some other commissions as well from people who lived abroad and wanted pictures of their villages and so on.
I rememember sitting early one morning on a hill outside the town painting a village opposite for an "ex-patriate Greek" who lived in South Africa, when I heard the news on my portable radio of the Invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein.
I used to paint early in the morning before it got too hot, and then go swimming in the afternoon. An Idyllic life. I stayed on a campsite next to the railway station (narrow gauge) which has a large collection of abandoned engines. Also fascinating.
Here is a picture of Pylos in the Peloponese. It is the harbour near the site of the Battle of Navarino, when a fleet of 25 Allied ships under the command of Admiral Coddrington defeated the entire Turkish and Egyptian Navy (80 ships) in 4 hours, bringing the Greek war of independence to an end (1821-1826) and ensuring the birth of the modern Greek democratic republic. 80 Turkish ships were sunk, no Allied (French, Rusian and British) ships were lost.
John Foss
 

Christine Callisen

Commodore of happiness and laughter
I´m really impressed. I can´t paint, but I enjoy lookning at different kinds of pictures. It´s there a historie behind what you paint?
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harfo32

New member
Thank you Christine. Do you mean a history behind why I paint or the pictures themselves?
A few years back I went on holiday with a couple of friends touring the Loire valley in France, playing organs, eating good food and enjoying ourselves. One of my friends is an artist and did some painting. I said "I wish I could do that!" "Oh, you can" he said. "Start with a tree!" I did and got hooked. Like anything else, it's practise!
John Foss
 

corno

Vice Admiral of Notes, Dots & at times also Slurs
Sr. Regulator
Those are some really nice paintings you've got there!
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Nice work!

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Thomas
 
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