The islands of the Dodecanese are celebrated in a new exhibition to be held by Nick and Marian Alexopoulos. A collection of paintings by Marian, and photographs by Nick, will accentuate the true beauty of the Aegean.
Nick, a retired school principal, and Marian, an established artist, are veteran travellers and were so enchanted with these islands that they decided to encapsulate some of this atmosphere in a joint exhibition.
“It’s inspirational,” Nick tells Neos Kosmos of the islands. “The light in Greece is so different to here and as artists you want to capture what you see.”
Last September, the couple visited the islands and stayed for five weeks. Going off the beaten track, the visual artists visited tiny villages and captured through Marian’s paintbrush and Nick’s lens the true essence of what they saw.
“When Nick asked me where I thought we should go in 2013, the siren call of Greece sprang up once more. We have visited Greece many times, but had never been to the Dodecanese, so Nick put together a month’s itinerary covering the islands of Patmos, Lipsi, Leros, Kalymnos, Kos and Rhodes,” says Marian.
“I packed my watercolours and Nick got to grips with his new camera. It wasn’t until we were perched on a rocky hillside on our fifth island, with goat bells jangling across the valley and the turquoise sea below that we hit upon the idea of sharing our travel experiences in this way.”
“These islands aren’t as touristy as your major islands. Like Lipsi there are only three villages there and we visited them all and painted and took photos of each one,” Nick says. “Leros was interesting as it was colonised by the Italians for many years and it has Italian architecture throughout, and Rhodes is so special as it’s so ancient and the Turks were there.”
Marian will exhibit over 20 paintings, and Nick over 20 photographs that he captured. The images will represent the villages, the churches, the people, boats, narrow alley ways and the exhibition itself will highlight the Dodecanese islands. They will be presented amongst cultural treasures of Greece and iconic scenes to create the atmosphere of the Aegean in Mount Macedon.
A Greek Odyssey will be featured at The Gallery, 684 Mount Macedon Road, Mount Macedon from March 4 to March 30, open 10.00 am – 4.00 pm Friday to Tuesday. There will be a special opening where you can chat with Nick and Marian about their trip on Saturday 8 March from 2.00 pm.