Easter Saturday night fireworks in Corfu Town. 2013

Easter Saturday night fireworks.

  In this next video you can hear the sermon being sung in the background.

Easter weekend in Corfu

 Easter Weekend in Corfu.

This weekend was Easter here in Corfu, so here are a few photos of how we celebrated........Saturday night is crazy in Corfu town,  many people travel to Corfu at Easter to join in the celebrations, and the town is the hub of it all, we took the more relaxed route to town to watch the Easter fireworks and listen to the sermon 'Christ has Risen".
On my good friend Tom's yacht.

                              Leaving for Corfu town from Gouvia Marina as the sun begins to set.

                                                           Tom, our laid back Skipper!

          At anchor in Garitsa bay, close to the New Fortress in town, where they set off the fireworks.
                       Tom, lighting the on- board bbq, with his faithful collie Ronja looking on.

                                                   Looking across at the New Fortress.

 

                   Fireworks, and you can just see the silhouettes of other yachts anchored in the bay.

              It was a wonderful evening, good food, good friends, fresh food and relaxed conversation.

Easter Sunday, and I had decided to ask a few friends round for a small bbq and roast lamb ( traditional for Greek Easter) that I would do in the oven.

                                                          My garden, ready for guests.



 Everyone brought meat for the bbq and a salad or sweet, plus of course beers and wine. Once again it was a lovely relaxed day, although sweltering weather to start.

  Then, luckily we had all eaten,  a mini tornado blew through the garden bending the umbrella and scattering leaves everywhere, and it began to rain!! But it did not last, everyone stayed on happily till the evening, when the temperature was perfect. What a glorious day, and many thanks to all my dear friends for making it so.

Corfu, Murals, Art and Kyma

A little preview peek at my book.
http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/3238548/2e4040749b54196f4554fb6e59c69bdb05fbeb99 

Corfu. Murals, Art and 'Kyma' by Caroline Philp | Make Your Own Book

I have been playing around with a new simple web site, not finished yet, as I will add more when I have time, but so easy to do! Please check it out, and leave me a comment to let me know what you think, plus a share on Facebook or wherever would be great....thanks.
http://www.artistanmurals.com/ 

Weathered cement lion....finished. 

Having sent an e-mail to my client with photos of the progression, to have a return e-mail saying she was thrilled and excited, I just put a few finishing touches and a couple of coats of matt varnish and done!!!

 

Weathered cement lion project.

A client of mine had this old weathered cement lion in her garden in Corfu for years, then she came to me with the idea of mounting it in a frame of some sort so that she could hang it on the wall of her house. The idea came from the Corfiot winged lion, one of the symbols of Corfu and found at  the New Fortress in Corfu Town.

So I asked the help of my good and very talented friend Nick to make me a frame to mount the lion on that I could then paint and distress to look like stone. Having discussed the proportions and look of the frame Nick, a perfectionist, made me a perfect mount from MDF, and bless him, had been extremely careful in transporting it to my house not to dent it or damage it in any way. I think he would have been horrified to see me take my jig saw and a hammer to it in order to distress the perfect corners and edges!!

         
                                     Nick, putting the mount together, after transporting it in sections.



After I had given it a good beating, I undercoated the whole thing, and added sand in with the paint to give it a good texture.

Once dry, I took it outside to my work table in the garden to paint it as the weather is so beautiful. I then decided it was not textured enough, so I decided to apply filler with a paintbrush on large sections of the surface and then stipple and texture the filler surface whilst still wet.

Once this was dry I proceeded to paint.

 

 In order to get a really good weathered stone look, the layers, colours and textures of paint need to be built up slowly. But it started to look a bit more like stone at last......

I decided I would make the back surface look as though it was made of large stone blocks, just to give it a bit more interest, so I scraped into the filler and paint, bringing up the white undercoat, to make lines, then added some shadows to give the feeling of depth.

Time to bring the lion out to see if I have the colour and tones are right to fit with the lion.

  Not bad, but not quite happy with it yet, but enough for today. I will continue tomorrow, and maybe add a few lighter areas of paint.

New Murals.

Just finished painting some murals at Vasilakis Koumquat shop in Agh Ioannis, Corfu. Two of them run along under the serving area, and the third, a Corfiot girl in traditional costume is in a door way, which was off center, so I painted some stone work down the side as well. Because of the position of the girl, I think customers may jump when they suddenly see her whilst they are browsing the shelves, her eyes also follow you around the room, rather fun I think.

My Fine Art America site, for buying prints and cards of my paintings.

My book Corfu, Murals, Art and Kyma .

Here is the link to my little book, Corfu, Murals, Art and Kyma.....

http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/3238548/2e4040749b54196f4554fb6e59c69bdb05fbeb99

Here are a couple of videos as a reminder of some of the work...murals and paintings... I have done.

 

                           And one of a selection of photographs from Kyma, a little wave of gifts.

Well, everything is now moved from the shop to my house....here are a few photos of the shop...just as a farewell to  Kyma, a little wave of gifts.

New beginnings

A long time since I've even visited my blog, let alone write....well two years on...two wonderful years in my little shop/gallery Kyma, I have loved every minute of it, and will never regret having opened it. But life and work commitments, have taken over, and I am closing, sadly and with a heavy heart, though optimistic for a bright future. Tough I will be continuing my Kyma page on Facebook with pieces still for sale https://www.facebook.com/kyma.bycaroline .....I will be working from home from now on, though will be traveling around Corfu painting and hopefully selling!  I have opened an online shop on Etsy Kymacreations, where you find some of my hand made and painted gifts and paintings I was selling in my shop, you can also find all of my paintings available as prints at caroline-philp.fineartamerica.com plus of course there is always my website .www.muralsandart.com . Once I have done all the physical stuff like actually moving all my things from the shop to my home. I will be more organized to post new work and news. I would like to thank all my friends and customers for all their support over the past two years, and you will still all be able to find me and buy or order commissions as usual.