travel Archives - Dora Sislian Themelis Art

Finished for Friday

The sunflower and veggie photos are exhausted. I was hunting for subjects for the next painting by looking through my photographs of this and that. Since I’m not visiting Greece again this summer I wandered to my pictures of our past trips.

It wasn’t such a good idea.

None of the scenes appealed to me as paintings. The photos I took of my view either had my family or other people in them, or they just work as a photograph.

But then I got involved looking at our family, where we were, what we were doing, family we were visiting with, the youth of my sons and their happy faces, their silliness, and who is gone since then.

Many memories live in the pages of those photo albums and rather than finding inspiration I found a sort of melancholy.

A little book of travel info peeked out of my bookshelf and I found a small photo of a Greek island I’d never been to before. The colors and shapes were pleasing so I went ahead and sketched that scene. It felt good to lose myself in the activity and to shake off the downer.

Kalymnos ©2012 Dora Sislian Themelis
12×9 Watercolor, Arches 140lb cold press paper

Done in twenty minutes start to finish, it’s a bright, colorful scene with none of the memories.

Daydreaming Again

Deciding on the next painting, I settled on daydreaming about traveling. Greece this year is not a possibility, nor is anything else for that matter. But daydream? That I can do.

Some of my paintings of Greek themes had a very good response at that art event I participated in so I thought I would revisit my photos of our trips. I tested out a small sized watercolor block just to see how I felt about the colors I would be using.

Hmmm…

I dropped in color after flooding the paper with water, outlining the major areas that need work. After it dries I’ll go back in and add more color and detail.

Good thing this was too wet to work at because I am notorious for pushing it too far when I shouldn’t, then tossing it as a goner. Not even twenty minutes in and I had to stop.

Will it make the thumbs up pile? We will see.

Rocks on the Beach

Beach vacations are pretty much similar where ever you travel, some more luxurious than others. We’ve been to quite a few different places where the beach is the main idea and each destination is unique.

Cancun, Acapulco, Nassau Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Greece, Long Island, Las Vegas, oops Las Vegas has pools, all have some aspects that are similar and different. Some have sandy beaches and others have rocks.

The Mr. was born in a Greek island with rocky beaches so that’s what he looks for in a beach. In fact, most Greeks are lured by calm waters and a rocky beach, something that resembles home to them. But I’m a New York girl so what do I know other than sand and waves like Jones Beach and Pt. Lookout? Rarely did we travel to the Long Island Sound with it’s calm waters. It’s fine with me, I’m drawn to the water, rocks or not.

One fascination Greek island people have is watching the ferry arrive with it’s passengers, trucks loaded with produce, cars and stuff. The ferry is so huge and things keep coming off. Then it gets loaded back up with the same stuff going the other way.

In Greenport there are ferries that shuttle all the same kind of stuff and people to Shelter Island, all day and night, back and forth. So of course, we’re fascinated by all the action. They loaded a huge tractor trailer onto this little ferry, plus people in cars, people with bicycles, and just people on foot! I was in awe, just like we are when we’re in Greece! I know, whacko.

When we were finished gawking at the ferry coming and going we were ready to head back to the beach. The sun was high in the sky and glistening off the clear blue water. Not many people were on the beach so it was all for us to enjoy. Like I said, Heaven is an empty beach!

Except for the seagulls. No matter where you go seagulls will take your food, throw it around the beach and eat it.

Our last full day I took out the watercolors at the urging of The Mr. He said, You brought your set out here, now get to work! Oh gee, thanks. I was so happy to do nothing on this trip, absolutely no brain waves nothing. But OK, it was time, and the rocks looked so interesting.

I began sketching out a few nearby rocks with some dried seaweed clinging to them. So The Mr. says, You’re going to paint rocks? What’s wrong with the water and the sky? I don’t know why but rocks are neat and painting the scenery was sort of intimidating with watercolors. And anyway, I have pictures for later.

Without penciling in the subject I just went with the paint. The brushes I keep with the set have a great point so I can sketch with color and blend in the paint with the side of the brush. I added color and tried my best to keep the whites white. The good thing about this little travel set is the limited palette. That seems to keep me in line or I’d add every color I can get my brush into. Bad, good, I don’t know, but that’s what my brain tells me to do.

I thought I would try to paint every day on the trip, but thinking about doing it was stressful. I needed to wind down my brain and think of nothing and of doing nothing. Once I started painting I guess by that time I was really ready for it.

OK, when’s the next trip?

No Stress Vacations Are Perfect, and a Sunset to Boot!

What kind of amenities do you look for when you travel? If you ask me, I need a clean and quiet room. No bugs. Close to the water and restaurants. That’s pretty much it. Now, if I’m in Las Vegas or the Bahamas, that’s a whole other set of priorities and expectations except for the a fore mentioned amenities, but on a more luxurious scale. We were interested in getting away to change our scene as close as possible with the least amount of stress involved. This was perfect.

In little towns like Southold and Greenport you can’t expect luxury. This is farm country, wine country, old maritime fishing villages. You’re not getting luxury here. Maybe the Bed and Breakfasts are a little more plush, but don’t expect too much. I certainly don’t. Like I said before, clean and beach is what I need, and what I got. The Long Island Sound was so clean and clear this year it was a pleasure to be so close to it.

The rooms at this little place have efficiency kitchens, OK; they’re clean, OK; they face the beach, big OK; air-conditioned, OK; a short drive to a cool town for dining, OK. Downside-the refrigerator went on and off all night, the road out front was noisy with traffic all night, an illuminated EXIT sign inside the room (code) was lit up all night, the air-conditioner was either too cold, or when turned off the room was too hot. OK OK OK.

The one thing that made us crazy was a noise we figured out was a cricket in the wall. It chirped at intervals with the refrigerator, all night long. I wanted to find it and kill it, but we couldn’t do either. So we decided we’d nap on the beach, eventually. Seems there’s a lot of history here on the north fork of Long Island especially during the Revolutionary War. Along the main road there are these signs telling of raids and war activities. There are tales of pirates, too.

We visited Greenport for dinner every night. Many restaurants there have outdoor dining and a few are right on the docks. Boats large and small can pull up to the docks of the marinas and stay for dinner or moor for the night. When the weather is good it’s a beautiful place.

We had great food at Claudio’s Clam Bar right on the water, surrounded by boats, the water, Shelter Island across the bay and the most beautiful sunset you could imagine. As I’m not so great at remembering to take pictures of everything, we were half way done with dinner before I thought about it! We really enjoyed the freshest seafood around. After dinner we walked around Greenport investigating all the boats docked at the piers, window shopped at the antiques and quaint shops, listened to jazz at a gelato and dessert bar. The sun was setting so spectacularly that we had the great idea to grab some coffee to-go and run back to our hotel to have the amazing apple tart we bought on our way from Briermere farm. Dessert and coffee, the beach and the setting sun were the perfect end to a perfect day.

Of course I remembered to take a picture of the apple tart. Wouldn’t you?

Taking a Hop, Skip and a Jump

While I tried to get the Mr. to take a trip to somewhere this summer, the only idea he liked was to stay local. Forget Greece, Las Vegas, Bahamas, or Florida. A short road trip it is, with no housework in sight!

We’ll be visiting the east end of Long Island, on the North fork, in farm and winery country. While I don’t know if we’ll be going to any wine tastings, I am hoping the weather is hot and humid, perfect for sitting on the beach. Weather is not something you can predict with any measure of accuracy and any outside activity depends on the weather. Being a person who likes the heat, the weather better cooperate. Earlier it was cloudy, rainy, but hot and humid. Now the sun is showing up. It better!

Last week the humidity lifted and we were left with temperatures in the low 80’s and high 70’s. That’s cold to me! That’s get out the woolies weather! I never complain when the temps go up into the high 90’s! Nope, not me! I am in hog heaven when it’s hot, hot, hot! I know what New York winters are like and I never complain about a sweltering New York summer. Yup.

So I will probably..scratch that, definitely be AWOL from the blog. I don’t have a Blackberry, or a netbook, or an iPad. You’ll all have to carry on without me. Rest assured that pics of my days will be forthcoming. I plan to bring along my travel watercolor set and my ink pen with a drawing pad. Morning pages will be coming along too, which I will have to sneak because the Mr. always wants to know what I’m writing about. Will I get to do some art while I’m sitting in a beach chair all day long? We shall see, won’t we.

Skeins on a Plane

I’ve been AWOL from the blog lately due to a family emergency which took me out of town. Travel is something I like to dream about, but don’t really like to do when it gets down to it. I love to watch an airplane in the sky and imagine the exotic place it’s going. Sometimes I wish I was on that airplane flying away somewhere. Then I think of how it all works and I start to get nervous. Planes fly in the sky, right? A big heavy apparatus with real people inside, flying over oceans, mountains, and all that entails. Then there’s the planning which I am really bad at.

This trip was different in that I had no time to think or plan because there was nothing to do but get to the destination. No time to pack, just throw essentials in a bag. When I have an emergency my fears fly out the window. I had an objective and worked to meet it. What I did think about was taking my Artist’s Way morning pages to write in and a couple of skeins of sock yarn. At least these two things would keep me calm and be productive in down time.

I took care to bring bamboo needles for the sock knitting instead of my favorite steel double-points. In this post 9/11 time, flying is tough enough that I didn’t want to risk fighting with security over knitting needles and looking like a wacko flight risk. Hey, remember people, this is New York! Bamboo needles sailed through the check points.

Settled in my seat near a window, I took out the knitting and got to it. The “flight professional”, as they are now called, asked me for my drink and snack preferences and added that she’s seen knitting with two needles, but never with four. So I tell her, “It’s for socks.” She starts laughing and hitting her head while I’m thinking, ok, what’s her problem? Looking at me between the blue chips and the cashews, over the heads of my seat-mates she says, “You did say socks, right?”