Views from Cyprus: Painting Outdoors
I am highlighting the work of Marina Hadjiefthimiou who recently submitted assignment 3 for her Painting I Watercolour course. It is fascinating to see such a range of submissions from our international students. Ms. Hadjiefthimiou is based in Cyprus and I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of her work, and how she depicts and shares her local surroundings.
In this work above, Marina has depicted local colour and light to introduce forms in the landscape. Here is what she had to say about this series: “The main challenges of working outside was to select what to include and to see tonal differences in a big area with strong sunlight and show the distance. The elements of my landscapes that I feel I was mostly involved with were the colour hues and tones. Overall, I feel that from this initial exercise, I have learned something about how to translate what I see in watercolours and paint landscapes”.
Olive Trees
“I chose to work from the “Olive tree” because I wanted to experiment more deeply on a subject that it is very familiar to me and it has been painted by many artists in my country”.
Abstraction in everyday life
Above are two more works that Marina made on location. I wanted to point these out because they are fresh and spontaneous. These works depict the experience of the landscape and the essence of what is there, more than form and space. There are two artists whose work comes to mind here: Arthur Dove and Marsden Hartley.
“It should not be hard for you to stop sometimes and look into the stains of walls, or ashes of a fire, or clouds, or mud or like places, in which… you may find really marvelous ideas”. (Leonardo da Vinci)
5 thoughts on “Views from Cyprus: Painting Outdoors”
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Nice to see your work again Marina.
Thank you very much Emma!
That’s really lovely work, an inspiration. Thanks for showing it.
I just opened the magazine today Marina.A comment late in time but I liked the work you are showing.In particular the lovable Olive Tree!.Here my humble view, you stirred in me , that particular feeling recognizing the silverygreenish pale blueish touch of the leaves. Shape did not matter to me at all. but oh!yes, you certainly fetch out the nostalgia in colour. You showed the two trunk grooves ,or holes and reminded me of the old olive tree”mes din koufalan tis elias….” from his poem -H Marikkou.!…By our national poet Demetris Libertis.(1866- 1937). It was made also into a song. The last one found attractive it has colour in bright digital clarity.Lovely to catch the eye in Water Colour. N’asai Kala ke na zoyrafizis!=Wish you well and keep painting.!
It feels really good to hear such good words for my work! Thank you