from the endless sky 90x60cm

  Golden is the color of my bright shining love fueling the red colors of my passion. I can fly into the endless sky yet choose your medium to roam in, in order to bring through gold and red the black and white of life into life worth living... I can fly but it is a burden to be unlike you... as you are the divine goal of the adition of my dreams. Love is as always the sweetest cut of any that make you bleed.

[I.R.S.]

beeee 40x40cm

Bees are irrational creatures… they have too big a body for the size of their wings or too little wings for the size of their body… anyway it is irrational (fact or no fact) that they actually can fly and to add to that from their flying is the procreation of the flora almost absolutely dependant!!!!
So rationality has obviously nothing to do with it… especially if you do not give a tiny rats ass about what is considered to be rational (as Bees do). Dream away and work at it, never give it a thought whether it has been done before and whether it is rational or not; just do what you believe needs to be done!! Watch out though… the bee did not pray for bigger wings while sitting on its ass waiting for it to happen; it just flew its round tush to the sky!!
"...
It matters not how strait the gate,
how charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul." (W. E. Henley)

[I.R.S.]

at the Gallery 30x24cm

The treasures of an endless ocean lie behind some of the paintings (soul-windows) exhibited in Galleries. Those windows are not for everybody to open nor are they for everybody to cherish; yet they are there for everybody to try. I can never forget the feeling I got the first time I stood in front of such a painting which was talking to me; my own soul. It actually felt like a rabbit-hole through which, like Alice, I travelled to places that I did not know that they existed, even in my imagination. After resurfacing I was never the same...

[A.R.S.]

dawn 80x60cm

... a new dawn is upon us

soon the fires of tonight will breath their last smoky breaths

the true light will disseminatate the past and let the future be born...

[I.R.S.]

madama 40x40cm

"And so I'm marrying in the Japanese style,
Tied for nine hundred
And ninety-nine years,
Free, though, to annul the marriage monthly."
[Pinkerton Act I, PUCCINI's MADAMA BUTTERFLY]

νόστιμον ἦμαρ (day of return) 40x40cm

Πάντα στον νου σου νάχεις την Ιθάκη.
Το φθάσιμον εκεί είν’ ο προορισμός σου.
Aλλά μη βιάζεις το ταξείδι διόλου.
Καλλίτερα χρόνια πολλά να διαρκέσει·
και γέρος πια ν’ αράξεις στο νησί,
πλούσιος με όσα κέρδισες στον δρόμο,
μη προσδοκώντας πλούτη να σε δώσει η Ιθάκη.

Η Ιθάκη σ’ έδωσε τ’ ωραίο ταξείδι.
Χωρίς αυτήν δεν θάβγαινες στον δρόμο.
Άλλα δεν έχει να σε δώσει πια.

Κι αν πτωχική την βρεις, η Ιθάκη δεν σε γέλασε.
Έτσι σοφός που έγινες, με τόση πείρα,
ήδη θα το κατάλαβες η Ιθάκες τι σημαίνουν.

(Από το ποίημα Ιθάκη του Κ.Π. Καβάφη)

At every stage bear Ithaca in mind.

the ballerina 70x50cm

... I am back... I finished with all the moving around and now from the beautiful Thessaloniki - the bride of Thermaikos - this is my latest painting...

It is a fuzzy warm feeling being back in Greece... I am so glad to be back that I have yet to discover something, anything, annoying! I 'm home!![A.R.S.]

the goldfish's kiss 90x70cm

... farewell to Hamburg..., I am about to move back Home, back to Greece. Back to stay!

I am neither happy, nor sad;

I am both happy, and sad;

I do not know, really

and

another thing I do not know is how exactly the way I feel affects my paintings and effects on them...

This is the last painting I am painting here, in Hamburg. Here where I actually started this blog 1.5 years ago!!

My next post will be sent into the ether from further south.

... farewell to Hamburg...[A.R.]

shades of blue 60x50cm

shades of blue...

seas of blue disrupted by white foamy lines...

it is a flag hiding between the lines,

it is the livelihood of a nation,

it is the pride of a seafaring's son mother!

...

it is a story that started long, long ago in the mist of ancient times,

a story bold and beautiful but also sad and true...

a story - history that charges the hearts of men, of those men calling it their own,

filling them with energy... begging for the right medium to be released!

the time shall come...[I.R.S.]

the dancer 50x60cm

 

"Beauty and truth are usually more charming unveiled!" was the beginning of the description of my other nude "Unveiled 80x30cm", and thinking for a title for this one the word unveilled ... made me think of the "dance of veils", made me think of Salome... Yet the historic anchor-point was not to my liking as well as the fact that while painting I thought of nothing the like... In the end it's just a dancer! This again made me think of Tina Turner's "private dancer"... I'm a mess, I feel awkward with nude, I guess, although they are beautiful!... Anyway, so, I present to you "The Dancer".[A.R.]

marine boy 50x60cm

 

Imagination is a powerful thing, I often watch my little-one preparing to go to sleep and choosing one of his toys, a different one every evening, to keep him company. I guess he is sculpting his dreams that way; when he wakes in the morning he is still holding the toy and if not the first thing he does, still half asleep, is to retrieve it from the blankets.

Yesterday he went to sleep with a little whale on his pillow ... this is a capture thereof.[A.R.]

Marine girl 50x60cm

Sometimes Surrealism is needed in life, dreaming of things we like or live in our own world, helps you escape reality and all these stressful rules......sometimes taking a brake and live like a kid makes you feel alive [A.R.]

looking down 50x80cm

Looking down and wondering what is the world coming to, why does everybody act so irrationally, what's with all the darkness... Are they going blind to the light?[A.R.]

among us 50x80cm

"Angels when they come to earth, they leave their wings at the coat-check so they won't get noticed" [from a Harley Davidson commercial]

Good (as bad) is among us... There are no tricks or cheats to recognise it. Sometimes it is really obvious, other times it is impossible to track, no matter how hard you look! The point is to keep an open mind and to try to postpone judging as long as possible (since it is hard to change the initial judgment one made about somebody). Good is not in your heart and neither in your mind!! Good is a state of being (!), yet the expression of it varies, depending on environmental (including social) factors!

Don't look for the Good, just try to feel it with all that is you.[I.R.S.]

walking down the hallway 50x70cm

 

 

There are hallways in life where we are not sure where they lead to, or even worse we know where they lead to but we are not ready (or willing) to walk down that path yet. An anchor point is in these cases a relief... something (or someone) you know will be there for you, won't give up on you... Sometimes just touching the wall next to you as you make yourself on the way is enough... Yet nothing makes the journey easier! The self persuasion about taking that first step towards the goal is the most important part of the journey after all...[I.R.S.]

 

strict mother 50x70cm

On this painting I used the procedure of underpainting in raw sienna and then applied three layers of colors leaving the background loose with empty spaces for more light. I love vintage style dresses although they look strict they radiate some kind of sensitivity and innocence. [A.R.]

 

Nanny's day -off 50x40cm

Nanny's day off to the beach! It's a gift for the mother to spent a pleasant time with her kids when it happens once in a while... [A.R.]

sweet angel 50x70cm

Women are wonderful creatures, they can be sexy and voluptuous, but that is by far not their best trait. What makes women look like angels is their sweetness, at the times they decide to let it surface. The sweet mother, the sweet wife, the sweet lover or the sweet daughter become in the eyes of the observer angel - figures; a little piece of heaven. Alas, nothing lasts for ever though... so cherish it... [I.R.S.]

Unveiled 80x30cm

 

Beauty and truth are usually more charming unveiled! Although there are people conservative enough, who prefer both covered up; with beauty it is half as bad (because nothing can really hide it), with truth is, covering it up, just a crime.[A.R.]

once upon a time the Minoan Greeks in Crete (3000 - 1300 B.C.) - tribute 60x40cm

Ταυροκαθάψια, ήταν άθλημα της μινωικής εποχής (3000 - 1300 B.C.), στο οποίο ο αθλητής εκτελούσε άλματα πάνω από έναν ταύρο. Έχουν βρεθεί αρκετές τέτοιου είδους παραστάσεις στην Κρήτη (σε τοιχογραφίες, αγαλματίδια και σφραγίδες) όπως και σε άλλα μέρη της Ελλάδας (στην Πύλος και στην Τίρυνθα) και στη Μικρά Ασία (στη Σμύρνη).[Α.Ρ.]

Bull-leaping (also taurokathapsia), was a ritual acrobatic sport of the Minoan era (3000 - 1300 B.C.). During the ritual the athlete conducted leaps over a bull. There have been found several depictions of it in Crete (on frescos, figurines and seals) as well as in other regions of Greece (in Pylos and Tiryntha) and in Minor Asia (in Smyrni).[A.R.]