Well, it's been a long time since I posted in here, but now a I have just begun a new chapter in my life. It started with meeting my wonderful partner Tom, and has accumulated in the two of us, and our dogs, Ronja and Jesse, living his dream and mine too of sailing away. I have given up my house in Corfu, downsized and moved onto Tom's beautiful yacht Silfrania, a 54ft Amel Super Maramou. We have begun our journey, modestly, with a sail to Mourtos on the mainland, after there was not the right wind for us to sail to lakka in Paxos. Now, a day later we are in Lakka, having left Mourtos early this morning. Once again we sailed here, though the sea was I would call messy, and I am ashamed to say, that for the first time ever I actually felt a little, well. lets just say, not brilliant, though the number of beers and a couple of Mohitos and shots the night before may not have helped!!!!
Our plan? Well we don't really have one, but we do have to be back in Corfu in August to take Tom's car and drive to Norway, via Amsterdam to see my baby boy Eusebios and his beautiful wife Zin. Then back in Corfu in September for a visit from Tom's mother and his daughter. Then, we are away again on the yacht, where? We are not sure yet.
 On this trip we hope to get to Turkey, but there are so many islands out there to explore, we will see, and once again, it all depends which way the wind is blowing.
  I intend to do sketches, take photos and write a daily...ish....account along the way, so this is just a bit of an introduction....more will come.

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.