The Chapel of the Unholy Mercenary Healers, Vatopedi Monastery
oil on canvas 60 x 60 cm Sold
Simonopetra I oil on canvas 60 x 51cm Sold
Simonopetra III oil on canvas 56 x 30 cm
Simonopetra II oil on canvas 121 x 51 cm
The Chapel of the Unholy Mercenary Healers
pen 25 x 25 cm
A few years ago, 2011 I went to Mount Athos to do some research for an exhibition I had been asked to contribute to entitled "That gong-tormented sea: contemporary artists pursue the idea and the reality of Byzantium" that took place at the Francis Kyle Gallery in London W1.
To arrive on Athos you need to get what is known as a ‘pilgrim’s permit.’ Getting my pilgrim’s permit entailed all sorts of shenanigans. I was pushed for time and needed to go asap in order to do the paintings in time for the exhibition. Pilgrim numbers are strictly kept to minimum. Arriving on the peninsula is only allowed by boat to a particular prescribed location. Everything is strict and organised in advance.
The day before I boarded the boat I caught the bus from Thessaloniki to Ierissos, the port, and stayed the night there. The drawing below from my Mount Athos sketchbook I made in the central park area of the town that evening. Very early the next morning I met the monks on the quayside to collect my permit, board the boat and so began my trip to the Holy Mountain.
This image above is the drawing for the painting The Chapel of the Unholy Mercenary Healers set at the heart of Vatopedi monastery. This is one of three Byzantine chapels left at Vatopedi. The colour of the chapel as seen in the painting is as it was and it hard to resist as the central part and subject of a painting.
Mount Athos is a peninsula and a mountain in Greece. It an important site of monasticism today and has 20 monasteries. I visited four monasteries, the first of which was Vatopedi.
Ierissos ink on paper 25 x 25 cm
Above is one of my Athos sketchbook pages showing something of my process for the painting Simonopetra I.
I had seen this monastery online before setting out and it quickly became my number one must visit. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay there as it was full but I did get there and made several paintings of it (three of which are shown here).
The pilgrim can only arrive to this monastery by boat and has to walk up the hillside to get to it. The dramatic effect of the architecture looming over you as you approach the jetty is what I tried to embody in the paintings. The eye line is low and all the action takes place above you.
The studio photos of the sketchbook page (above) shows Simonopetra being made. The canvas is 120cm tall. The day I had to deliver it to the gallery I wasn’t too happy with the bottom half so I restretched the canvas with the lower section still intact folding it carefully around and behind the stretcher. I do wonder if the buyer has actually noticed this yet.
The two paintings made subsequently include the lower sections of the slopes and a section of the jetty as had been my original intention in order to try and maximise the dramatic setting.
Vatopedi pen 25 x25 cm
