Pantanassa Monastery , Mystras

Laconia in early Spring  is one of the most beautiful places to be.  The abundance  of colours is  impressive. The highest peaks of Mount Taygetos  are covered  in brightly shining white; yellow, red, pink and violet  flowers enliven the green meadows and  the sky  is nearly always blue. It’s not difficult for a painter to find a subject to paint.  No matter how inspiring nature may be though , quite often a landscape becomes more interesting when one can include an architectural  construction. My dear father, Jan Poelstra,  who left us last year only a week before his eighty-third birthday (may his memory last forever)  was a successful architect. It was his opinion that a building appropriately designed accomplishes nature.

In many of my paintings I’ve acted upon his principle (see for instance here). Human intervention does not necessarily have to be the point of focus in a painting. In this oil painting  the bell tower of the  Pantanassa Monastery in Mystras  serves as  background to  the Mediterranean Spurge.

Byzantine church in Mystras

Nearly twenty years ago now, when my son was still a little baby, I started painting. My life in the little Greek village I lived in after my marriage to the owner of the local coffee shop had become so unbearably dull that I decided that I had to find something to do to give meaning to my life. When I was a little girl I’d liked  to draw and to paint.  I even had won a price in a drawing contest  for basic schools in Belgium and the Netherlands.  Every  morning  when I woke up the first thing I saw was the snow topped mountain range of Taygetos. From the terrace of my house I could see both the Byzantine castle town  of Mystras and the pre-historic sanctuary of  Menelaos and Helen. The little village was surrounded by olive groves  and along the banks of the river Eurotas  grew many orange trees. The ideal environment for a creative spirit.

Every time I went to visit  my parents and sister in Holland I returned with my suitcases filled to the brim with art books on how to learn to paint. I bought oil paints and brushes. An easel was slept from Holland to Laconia by my sister and her husband in their old Opel. And I started to paint.

My first painting was a large one: 50 x 70  cm. The subject of the painting is the Byzantine church of the   holy two  saints Theodoros in springtime Mystras. In the painting one can see the snowtopped  mountain Taygetos in the background, while in the center one sees the flesh coloured octagonal Byzantine church in the midst of  green meadows topped with flowers and flanked by rows of elegant cypresses.

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I started this blog because I want to share my experiences as a painter with you.