John Hartman: Watercolours from Greece

This spring I travelled to the island of Sikinos, one of the most southerly islands in the Cyclades, as close to Crete as to mainland Greece. I often think that time slows down on islands such as Sikinos, but maybe what time does is that it expands, allowing anyone paying attention to absorb into their consciousness what their senses are sending them. That is a perfect place to paint.

I have always been fascinated by islands. They have beautiful light, as sunlight bounces off the surrounding water into the moist air, then bounces back down to land. They often have a unique culture, being isolated from their most immediate neighbours. Getting to most islands means getting in a boat, which I love to do.

The Aegean Sea surrounding Sikinos is the purest cobalt blue colour imaginable. The island is mountainous, its northern side almost all cliffs, dropping down 1000 feet to the sea. There are very few trees, so everywhere has a view. There is no natural harbour on the island, which has kept it more isolated and less populated than many of the nearby islands. The small year-round population is spread between the manmade port of Alopronoia on the south shore and the two mountainside villages of Kastro and Chorio on the edge of the northern cliffs. The island is only fourteen kilometers long and these three villages are in the centre of the island. As you head toward the eastern or western ends of the island the roads turn into hiking paths then into wild mountain terrain. In the most remote and inaccessible places, usually high on hilltops, Sikiniotes have built small devotional chapels.

When I arrived I spent a couple of days just walking and looking. Then I brought out my small, portable watercolour kit, and keeping in mind the direction of the light at different times of day, I drove, then walked to the most promising vantage points, found a shaded place and made a painting. There was a 7 am until midmorning window for me to paint outdoors as the blazing midday sun was too hot, too bright and too flattening of the landscape to work in.

I was totally captivated by this island. Mountains rising out of the sea. Neighbouring islands, Ios, Folegandros, Naxos, coming in and out of view as the light changed throughout the day. Small white chapels perched on mountaintops. The mountain shapes coming into definition as the sun came up and travelled its daily course. The sounds of domestic life in the densely packed houses in Kastro drifting up the hillside in Chorio. The aroma of the ever present wild thyme.