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Canberra Today 14°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Greek island inspires local exhibition

Painters on Leros

OVER the years Canberra artist Michael Winters has been characterised as a kind of “wandering Greek” who surfaces in various part of the globe with his exhibitions.

Although he is justly famous for his serious Cretan works, exhibited at the Australian War Memorial some year ago, the peripatetic artist is especially associated with the Greek island of Leros in the Dodecanese Archipelago, of which he has been a citizen since 1995 when the Leros Municipal Council conferred the honour on him.

In September 2018, Winters took a break from his punishing teaching schedule of weekly ANU classes at Strathnairn Gallery and summer schools in Queensland to take a dozen artists from Canberra, NSW and Queensland on a 10-day drawing and painting “en plein air” trip to Leros.

Leros, no shortage of views to paint.

Overlooked by a castle fortress, with bays, beaches and inlets, blue and white churches, fishing and ferry ports, cafes, bars and farmlets, the island made a perfect subject for artists Amanda Adrian, Anne Balcomb, David Barrett, Lorri Blackwell, Philippa Friend, Sharon Monie, Glenda Naughten, Prue Power, Susan Reynolds, Judith Tokley and Trevor Willson.

During their stay, as well as sketching and painting, they got to meet the island’s characters and hear the inside stories of the island’s extensive and varied history over the millennia.

Now as the culmination of the trip, around 60 sketch books made at the time, linocut and collagraph prints, drawings and paintings influenced by the experience, including some by Winters himself – are to go on display for three weeks at the Q Gallery in Queanbeyan in an exhibition to be opened by the Chargé d’ Affaires of the Embassy of Greece, Ioannis Ferentinos.

“On Leros 2018” at The Q Gallery, 253 Crawford Street, Queanbeyan, November 26 to December 13. Opening, 5.30pm, November 26, all welcome.

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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