Ryan Sullivan

 

 

Ryan Sullivan at Hydra Workshop.

I love this small gallery so this post is as much about the space as about the paintings.

 

Sullivan's paintings evoke small-scale phenomena such as rippling water, shifting sandbanks, wrinkling skin. But at the same time, they call to mind vast topographies and geological elements - pyroclastic flows or tectonic shifts. Scale is radically ambiguous.



 

 

 

 

The process of creating them is as follows: he lays out the canvases horizontally on blocks and douses them with pools of latex paint. He subsequently adds layers of enamel and lacquer until a 'skin' develops across the base layer, variously leathery and paper-thin. He builds up an outer layer of paint around the latex, while continually manoeuvring the canvas so as to cause the underlying matter to gravitate, slump or split. The shifting paint becomes a nexus of lines - a frozen moment in time.



 

 

 

Looking closer

 

Sullivan rejects the terms 'figurative' or 'abstract', stating: 'The painting is what it is. It's not about looking like something, but being something'.

 

 

 

 

 

He cites an artist's statement by Ellsworth Kelly from 1969 as a formative text. In this Kelly describes his transition away from figurative painting towards 'object orientated' art. His idea of the primacy of the object - 'in my painting, the painting is the subject' - is one which resonates strongly with Sullivan's work.

 



 

 

Form and content, process and product, are collapsed into a seductive singularity.

The space is a gem

rough, white-washed walls

red marble floor

 

black-timbered ceiling

 

 

 

 

Looking out.

The road to Kamini

 

Walking to Kamini is one of our favourite things to do when we are in Hydra: a taverna is our final destination.

 

 



 

 

We leave the town behind us, walk towards Hydronetta and then

take the road to Kamini, on the edge of the cliff. The smell of wild lovage is overpowering

past the old windmill

the views are breathtaking

the road snakes around the cliffs

with the odd house perched on top of the cliff

it's a great walk and the scent of lovage is still with us

a lot of water taxis make the journey from Hydra town to Kamini taking those who do not want to walk.

We have arrived.

Our taverna has a few tables on the road that is on the edge of the cliff, and this is where we sit and look at the sea and when it gets really dark the sky is amazing - the Plough is just above our heads and we star gaze

and the little harbour is on our left.

August Full Moon

 

August full moon is a big event in Greece: everyone will celebrate it one way or another. Over 100 archaeological sites are open with people milling about or taking part in events that have been organised. Others will go on a beach, a hill, anywhere where they get a good view and celebrate the brightest moon of the year.

Our preferred activity used to be going up on the Acropolis and it used to be a fantastic thing to do. The last time we went however, it was so busy, so many people doing the same thing, that it was not a pleasure anymore. In fact, that was the last year that the Acropolis was open to people on that night, as quite a few fell and got injured.

This year we went to Vouliagmeni bay and it really was very beautiful: the restaurant we went to was packed, as lots of other people had the same idea, but this did not diminish our enjoyment. This is the view across the bay, with the lake facing us.

This year's full moon was rare in that it was also a Blue Moon (it's the third full moon in a season with four), the Full Sturgeon Moon (because sturgeon can most easily be caught this time of year),  and the Red Moon (because the weather and atmospheric conditions during this season can often make the moon look reddish when it rises through a haze).

A different view of the bay.

Courtyards

Most large houses have the same structure in Hydra: a courtyard that's enclosed by a high stone wall, a gate, and then you enter a very private, cool and intimate space.

Because they are such private affairs, I was able to have a look at hotel courtyards only.

The gate happened to be open so I was able to have a peep

This the courtyard of a pension

Hotel Bratsera - the restaurant in the courtyard

Bratsera's second courtyard

Hotel Mistral where we were staying - this is where we had breakfast every morning

the courtyard of our hotel at night

again

and again

Mistral is a beautiful stone building, and the courtyard is very lush

Hotel Phaedra - wonderful terrace on top: we stayed here a few years ago

Hotel Miranda

Hotel Orloff

I just love those steps.

Cats and donkeys

 

As I said in my previous post on Hydra, there is no motorised transport on the island. With the exception of the main town and the other 4-5 small settlements, there are no roads on the island, so there are two modes of transport:

 

 

 

 

water taxis, as shown above,

 

 



 

 

 

or donkeys and mules. These are particularly useful for moving around the island, as there are no roads, but they are also a means of transporting goods from the boats to the various cafes and restaurants which are plentiful as tourism is the island's main source of income.

 

On our first visit to Hydra a few years ago, Ken used to get up very early and go for walks. He told me that in the early mornings when the first boat arrived, the waterfront would be packed, literally packed with donkeys and mules laden with all the goods that the boats had brought. There is no water in Hydra, so tons and tons of bottles of water are brought to the island every day and those, together with all the food, (not much grows on the rocky hills) and everything else that is needed are transported on the backs of the donkeys to the various houses, bars and restaurants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took the above photograph at 11:00 as we were on our way to take a boat to go swimming, so there are very few donkeys around, as opposed to what happens in early morning. What is incredible is that you never, ever see any donkey poo - it gets swept up immediately by the owners.

 

 

 

 

Here is one boat that has been emptied, with one lone donkey waiting to be loaded up

 

 

 

 

 

and some of its cargo on the seafront

 

 

 

 

 

while two mules patiently await....

 

 

 

 

 

The other thing about Hydra is the cats

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know the history or the explanation, but they are everywhere

 

 

 

 

 

well-fed, well-looked after,

 

 

 

it's like they are the island's mascot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

feeding time.