My mum, who died in 1999, always wanted to paint, but with having 4 children she just never got round to it. At the age of 65 she took up oil painting, completely self taught. I bought her the monthly paint magazines to help, and for christmas and birthday presents she would get art materials from us all. Her very first oil painting was of Bamburgh castle in Northumberland. It hangs above the fireplace now in our Kefalonian home.
I had never wanted to paint, hadn't even considered it or even thought I could draw. However, a couple of years ago something changed (getting older I suppose!) and I started getting interested in painting. I started watching paint programmes on the TV, bought a set of water colour paints and set about trying to paint. Finding water colours stressful (too much time pressure to get a "wash" on before the paint dries!), I then took a night class in acrylics. I preferred this type of medium as it was forgiving and covered mistakes well. However, the tutor although obviously good at painting himself was not too good at tutoring, so I didn't feel as though I got too much out of the classes.
I then tried oil bars and then oil pastels. You can tell where this is going? I just couldn't decide what medium I wanted to use or what to paint and then I think I lost my way a bit and stopped painting even though I really wanted to. I keep thinking (wishful thinking!) that I could have inherited the gene for painting from my mum.
Anyway - I brought all of my art materials to Kefalonia in the hope that I would be inspired by the scenery and take it up again.
Back to Kefalonia......
So, on the morning of my birthday, we were walking the dogs along the beach at Karovomylos and we bump into a lovely lady who admires our Jack Russell. Her husband is sitting on the pier as we talk. They are here on holiday, and she mentions that her husband is sketching. I mention that I'm trying to get back into painting and we walk over to see him. He shows me his sketch book and wow.......brilliant sketches and water colour paintings. We end up talking for quite a while and he explains how he got into art. I'll not go into detail here as you can see from his biography on his website - he a professional artist - Michael Kitchen, and what a lovely man!
Mike and Mary
http://www.michaelkitchenartist.com
So... on my 55th birthday I bump into a professional artist who has instantly inspired me to get back into painting and has also suggested we go out for a morning tutoring session while he's here on holiday. It's just meant to be! That's my mum up there bless her, sending a messenger, to say 'Get a move on"
More on the the tutoring sessions on my next blog.
So, Mark took me out for lunch to a local taverna on the beach.
Karavomilos Taverna near the lake.
The glass is ALWAYS full!
Later that night I went for a horse trek up into the mountains courtesy of the Bavarian Horse Riding Stables. The scenery is stunning. You'll just have to take my word for it as I have no photos due to not wanting to remove my hands from the reins! The horses used at the stables are Haflingers, a breed with origins in Austria and Northern Italy. On this day, my birthday, 13 years ago (May 28 2003), a Haflinger filly named Prometea became the first horse clone born.
Website: Bavarian horse riding stables on Kefalonia
First contact!
Me on Luna
Best birthday ever. Thanks Mark, Mike, and Mary. Thanks too, to everyone who sent birthday cards and wishes via post, e-mail and Facebook.
