Black and White Foliage Photographs/Άσπρο Mαύρες Φωτογραφίες Με φυλλώματα

Cherry Blossoms

Butterfly On White Flower

B&W Plant Flowers

Bee At Work

The Last Leaf

Athens Street Photos/Δρομοι Της Αθηνας

It was a beautiful and sunny day in downtown Athens. And of course , like the tourist that I am, I had to take photographs of the unique little streets of Athens.

Ηταν μια πολυ ωραια και ηλιολουστη μερα στο κεντρο της Αθηνας. Εννοειται οτι επρεπε, σαν μια τουριστρια, να φωτογραφησω τα γραφικα σοκακια της Αθηνας.

Plug It In!

Bustling Side Street

Move That Car!

Now This Is Inspiring!

Hmmm that bread looks yummy!

Helmuts? No! This Is Athens

Old Parliament Building/Παλιά Βουλή

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Last Saturday I ventured downtown to get a few art supplies at an art and hobby store. As I was walking down Stadiou St. I noticed the old parliament building. In the past I have stood in front of it to take pictures of the statue of Greek General Theodoros Kolokotronis who is depicted riding a horse . I had never been inside the building, but that day something came over me and I decided to follow the group of people that were heading into the building. There was no entrance fee or anything and I was free to wander everywhere. The building was built in 1875 with plans by French architect Francois Boulanger and with foundations that were layed by Queen Amalia of Bavarian origin. After the Greek war of independence Greece had a monarchy for a short time that began in the late 19th century.The building has ceased to be used as a parliament building in 1932. The current parliament building is located at Syntagma square.

The parliament building is now the National Historical Museum. When I walked in I was awe-struck by the amount of historical artifacts that are displayed in the old building, from the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453 to the Second World War. Also, there are costumes and works of art from drawings to paintings and statues from different time periods and many weapons that were used during the many wars that Greece participated in.

Breaking Free/Ελευθερια

Torn Paper collage by Angela Zafiris

For a very long time I would see, in my mind, a woman being released from her isolation. I saw her walls breaking down. She walked alone with the wind behind her pushing her toward the blue sky. The sun is coming out of the clouds and is ready to greet her. She doesn’t know what fate has in store for her but has an undying hope. Green symbolizes hope this is why she wears a green dress instead of black which symbolizes mourning. This woman mourns no more…

In this collage I used bits of torn blue paper from magazines for the sky. Torn bits of brown paper for the bricks and green for the females’ dress. The papers were glued on 34 x22 cm cardboard paper.

Love?/Ερωτας;

The first photograph is my collage at its first stage before being completely altered. After all the images got glued down on cardboard paper. I let it dry for a few hours. I then added a white wash to blend everything together. After the wash dried I painted over it with phthalocyanine blue. It was too dark, so I used burnt sienna mixed with a bit of titanium white acrylic to tone down the dark blue. It looked a lot better. Then I added the images and the text. I thought that the text stood out too much so I glued tissue paper over the text. A crimson acrylic was then applied with a key card, to make a border which is not seen in photo. The basic key to making a collage is layering and more layering and use just a couple of colours.

Love? (incomplete)

Collage on paper by Angela Zafiris

Conversation Heart Collage- #IHeart Art

Collage Hearts by Angela Zafiris

Today, I participated in an a webinar hosted by ‘clothpaperscissors.com’ . I learned how to make a three-layered heart collage using cardboard paper, text, pen and pencil, gesso, ribbon a hole puncher and glue. I didn’t have the right fabric for the second layer so I used bits of red coloured paper. For the smallest heart you can write a love poem or quote. There are so many things that you can do. I was very inspired and will probably make more for friends and family. It’s a nice little gift to give to someone you love. You can hang it anywhere you want.

So get crafty!

Fall Goddess/Φθινοπωρινή Θεά

Mixed-media painting on canvas 45 X 35 cm
By: Angela Zafiris

My first painting of the new year is a mixed-media painting. I don’t usually paint faces. I do make sketches and I will be painting more faces in the near future. I mostly enjoy ripping paper to make collages, but I thought I’d take more risks and stretch myself more. For the painting I used leaves from my garden to use as stamps for the background. The climate in Athens is different from Western Europe and Northern Greece which is why I was able to gather leaves in the winter. I painted some of the leaves gold and glued them on the canvas. The gold leaves became a headdress and it shines beautifully in the light which I am glad the photograph captured.

Don’t Follow The Status Quo/Μην Ακουλουθειτε Το Καθεστώς

Collage by Angela Zafiris

My latest collage painting is glued on a 40×30 cm canvas. I made the background using pieces of text from a Greek book (not an interesting one) . The coloured pieces that I used to make the faces are from various magazines. I wanted the larger words, the phrase, to blend into the background better, so I transferred the text using gel medium.

“One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion”. –Voltaire

National Park of Athens/Εθνικός Κήπος

One of the most beautiful places to visit in Athens is the National Garden of Athens (Ethnikos Kipos). After visiting the park recently I decided to do some research and I found out some interesting facts about this enchanting place. The parks’ original name was ‘The Royal Garden’ . It was designed by Queen Amalia (Greece had a monarchy at the time) and constructed in 1836 by the architect to the royals Friedrich von Gaertner . There is a small zoo containing different species of birds and a duck pond. Also, there is a closed off section with Roman baths and pieces of Adrians’ wall. Another remnant of antiquity is the canal that dates back to the time of the Greek tyrant Peisistratos. It surprised me when I discovered that American writer and painter Henry Miller visited the park in the 1930’s and wrote that “It remains in my memory like no other park I have known. It is the quintessence of a park, the thing one feels sometimes in looking at a canvas or dreaming of a place one would like to be in and never finds.”