The Cats and The Potamos of Cyprus

CAThedratical in Cape Gkreko - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

We spent 4 days in Ayia Napa, and unfortunately the weather was not the best. Sunshine, but constantly alternating with heavy rains and wind. Consequently, we could not visit the places around Ayia Napa as much as I wanted, and of course, sketching on the sites was quite impossible. Still we managed to make a trip East of Ayia Napa, on the coast, to the Cape Gkreko. This is where I was first really confronted with “The Cats of Cyprus”. I had met one the day before in the cemetery of Ayia Napa, but this was quite normal, I thought, cats go usually to cemeteries when they go out. In Cape Gkreko though, they had taken over the church! I sketched the one who seemed to be the boss. He majestically modelled for me like an archbishop for a Vatican painting. Well, who knows? The Vatican might be interested!

From that moment on, I noticed that cats were everywhere in Cyprus. One day I even saw a T-Shirt featuring “All The Cats of Cyprus”: .

big mouth cat, stoned cat, seriously pissed-off cat, horny cat, romantic cat, wicked cat, shy cat, confused cat

Yes, by the time we left Cyprus I had met them all and they constantly appear in my  paintings. I apologise to all my followers who are allergic to cats, but I really had no chance of keeping them away!

On our last day in Ayia Napa, we went west to the coast, to a little harbour called Potamos …. It was a weird place, chaotic somehow, but very romantic too, as if from another time…

Potamos Liopetri 01 - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

At some point while we walking along the beach at the end of the harbour, Kevin suddenly stopped and said:

“Potamos… does it mean river?

“Don’t know…”

and I felt some ancient anger emerging from the depths of my delicate soul .. I will tell later why…

“Look, the hippopotamus.. they are river horses aren’t they? Hippo means horses, right?”

I must say, that guy is sometimes very clever! I gave him a big hug for that and added:

“There is Mesopotamia too… could be true, you know!

I loved that logical explanation, but  so far I haven’t checked if it is right… too scared that it isn’t. But from that moment, we called “potamos” every river or stream we saw in Cyprus and Crete , big potamos, little potamos, dry potamos, wild potamos, confused potamos, pissed-off potamos, etc… sounded really cultivated! When I was young I  had 8 eight years of Latin at school, and I adored it, I really did. Nobody could ever understand that, but I found it very exciting. As a third language (the first being English) I wanted to take ancient Greek, but my father said no. I had a hard time understanding why, as my two brothers before me were forced to learn it. And then along came me and I wanted to do it, of my own free will, and I was not allowed. Instead I had to learn Spanish, and to cap it all, with a black-bearded teacher I hated. Ridiculous!  I still haven’t forgiven my father for that!

Potamos Liopetri 02 - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

As I said, this Potamos was quite chaotic . Some of the places right by the docks looked like as if people had their living room there…

Old and Lonely in Potamos Liopetri - Watercolour and ink travel painting by Miki

In this painting the whole décor is faithful to the place, but to be honest, the old man himself was not really there. But I am sure that he often sits in this armchair, at sunset, thinking of all the fishes he caught in this potamos when he was younger…

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When The Saints go marching in Ayia Napa

There were not only restaurants, night bars and strip clubs in Ayia Napa, there was also a beautiful main square with an impressive church and monastery. Unfortunately I was not tuned into serious stuff, so I missed that occasion to paint the religious side of Ayia Napa. Not totally though…  even in these sacred places, one guessed there was some playful soul at work: was it God or the Devil? I don’t know, but  at the monastery, which was just being restored, somebody had placed 2 of the saints statues, outside, high on a walkway overlooking the monastery patio …by the way.. Kevin says it was actually Mary and Jesus, but I hadn’t got my glasses on, so Saints they must be! They were both wearing bright red togas and were so huge, so even if it was hard to recognize them, it was impossible to miss them! It was really an incredibly funny sight as the two saints did look as if they had come out of the church to supervise the restoration works! I could not resist making a very fast sketch of them, but sorry, it is not a good one: I really hurried up, scared that my saints may raise some objections… 

Saints in Ayia Napa - Watercolour and ink sketch, by Miki

My fantasy didn’t need more food to imagine these saints coming to life again and having a walk through the gardens  of the monastery… I wished this would be real, these places would be much more fun… although who knows? there might be saints already walking around there, incognito, more discreetly probably, not wearing red togas…

Monastery in Ayia Napa - Watercolour and ink sketch, by Miki

At some point in one of my painting trips, I started a series called “Street Musicians”, I think it was in Memphis, USA, with the fantastic Big Jerry. the best motif ever! Anyway,  I hoped to see some street musicians in Ayia Napa too, but I didn’t. What I did see was some cute little sculptures of musicians in a souvenir shop, so I took these instead and painted them in the street. I know, it is cheating, but if the saints’ statues get a life in Ayia Napa, why not the shop musicians? And anyway, as I always say: I have all the artistic freedom in the world!

Street Musicians In Ayia Napa - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

These paintings are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widget below to access my FAA Gallery

Night Life in Ayia Napa, Cyprus

The Strippers of Ayia Napa - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

I started my Cyprus paintings series yesterday with the restaurant life in Ayia Napa, and announced the chapter about its “infamous night life”. If you missed it, and also want to know where Ayia Napa and perhaps even Cyprus are, here it is.

I won’t pretend here that I really experienced the night life in Ayia Napa. To start with, nights, I have better things to do at home than to go out… Well, to be honest there was a time in my life when I loved to spend my nights in night clubs, flirting and partying and dancing until daybreak. I still love to dance myself to exhaustion, but I don’t like the night clubs any more, and anyway I don’t have time and energy for hangovers. And more than anything, I have at home the best guy in the world – BY FAR!  – , so really no need , thanks.

But Ayia Napa is well-known for its “infamous” night life, and when we walked through the town in the daylight, I could not help but get excited by all the night clubs there, and their incredible façades. I must admit that they did look like a lot of fun! So I  guess the people have a great time there, and the fame of Ayia Napa’s nights is probably well-justified, even the “infamous” part of it!

The first night club I saw was Toga Toga, a strip club on the main road. It was about midday and the place was closed at that time of the day, but an indiscreet glance inside  revealed to me a delightful scene: three of the strippers -at least I guess they were strippers, wearing only a red thong on their naked bodies…- were sitting on the stone lip of a little round pool, immersed in deep philosophical discussions about the world, which was floating as a big air balloon in the middle of the pool. Truly an interesting insight into the soul of a strip club, I would say!

Night Clubs in Ayia Napa - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

The sketch above is a kind of pot-pourri of some of the other night clubs I saw walking through the upper part of the town. “Nightmare”, “Bar Code”, “Teasers bar”, just a few among the many attractive buildings. I wished I could paint them all, as usual to make a choice is painful for me as an artist. For that sketch I chose some of the ones which matched in colours, mainly red, white and black. I must say that many of these façades were very attractive and quite artistic, a real feast for my eyes.

I am including here a sketch of a cemetery in Ayia Napa. I guess it is not classed as being part of the night life scene, but something in it tells me that exciting things are going on there at night… from black magic to gambling, and everything in between seems to take place there!

Cemetery in Ayia Napa - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

When I travel abroad, I always try to visit some cemeteries. For me they are immensely interesting, telling big stories about the soul of a country. If it was only me, I would paint ALL cemeteries I visit, but suppose that too many people would think I am weird and necromantic. Well, I am weird, but not necromantic, I am not attracted at all by anything touching death, on the contrary, it scares me like hell. But cemeteries tell stories about life, not about death.. at least that’s what I feel!

This will do for now. Perhaps one day one of the Ayia Napa clubbers will tell me what is going on inside these wonderful buildings,  it would really interest me!

These paintings are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widget below to access my FAA Gallery

Restaurant Life in Ayia Napa, Cyprus

11th 0f March 2012, here we go.

Destination: Cyprus

I had never been in Cyprus before, and neither had I any idea where it was. I just knew that it was an island, but not even knowing that it was a Mediterranean island! Well, I am not to blame really, we have so many islands in our sea, one surely  cannot expect me to know them all!

First visit in Cyprus:  Ayia Napa, on the south-East coast. Check the map below if you are as ignorant as myself.

Ayia Napa, Cyprus

We chose Ayia Napa  because Kevin has an English friend living in the neighbourhood there, a musician and music producer with whom he toured the USA many years ago with the Punk band The Gonads. I had seen photos from Ayia Napa on the net, and I didn’t expect much really, at least not from the artistic point of view. It looked to me like a boring town, and from what I had read, a place where people go to party and get drunk in the dozens of “infamous” night clubs. So, nothing for me really, at least not nowadays…

But as we walked through the town, I was quite pleased and charmed by all the colours and fun which emanate from all the businesses, the shops, the cafés, the restaurants, the infamous night clubs even. They did inspire me artistically, even if the result is only “silly” sketches, stuff which art critics surely wouldn’t qualify as “art”. But what do I care really? It was simply exciting! The restaurants in particular didn’t try to get tourists in by having ugly annoying guys pouncing on them on the pavement, as we often see in tourist places. Look at “Moo Moo” for example

Welcome to Cyprus 01 - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

Isn’t she delightful, this blue cow inviting one to carefully step in, with her fish and flowers and sea plant tattoos all over her cute little body? Who could ever resist? Well, to be honest, we did resist entering the place, as I don’t eat beef, but I certainly couldn’t resist immortalizing the Moo Moo Cow!

And then there was that delightful Mexican restaurant…

Welcome to Cyprus 03 - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

I am not sure if it was open to normal human guests though, as I only saw cows eating there. Might be a result of the economical crisis? Or was it in fact an inverse thing, something like cows eating Mexican people? Don’t laugh, this could happen, you know. Haven’t you seen all these fish doctors around the world nowadays advertising their services with the slogan:

“Now you are the Fish Food!”

and apparently, judging by their faces, people love to be eaten by fishes!

Welcome to Cyprus 05 - Watercolour and ink travel sketch, by Miki

And then came “Senior Frog’s”, with that cute frog surfing on the top of his fed-up car.

Kevin too was fed-up. As a specialist in Spanish language he said

“They can’t even spell señor!”

I personally don’t care about spelling, I just found the whole scene very nice, probably appealing to my childish and kitschy soul. yes, I can’t help it. I like kitsch sometimes. And I like to paint kitsch. Probably because I hate serious art!

I checked the net in the meanwhile, and found out that “Señor Frog’s” is a well-known chain, even having its own Wikipedia entry

“Señor Frog’s is a Mexican-theme franchised “infamous party scene” bar and grill in tourist destinations throughout Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, and the United States. You go to Señor Frog’s when you’re on vacation, if you want to get crazy and nobody knows you…”

I am wondering now… As far as I know now, Ayia Napa is neither in Mexico nor the Caribbean nor South America nor the United States. So, it might well be that Senior Frog’s was a kind of fake and  the wrong spelling was intended, to avoid problems… you see, Kev Moore, you might have been a little bit hasty with your accusations 

All in all I would day, the Ayia Napians love to have animals representing their food business. I wonder if one should see a deeper meaning in it…

Next post will be about the infamous night life in Ayia Napa…so be prepared to get off your head!

These unartworks are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widget below to access my FAA Gallery

Sleep Tight in The Travelodge

So, here I am. Back from a 6 week painting and sightseeing trip through unknown territory, that is to say: 3 weeks Cyprus, 3 weeks Crete, 1 day London. And although the weather was great almost all the time on these Mediterranean islands, it can never be as warm as at home, at least psychologically not. So, not a trace of vacation withdrawal, simply happiness to be back home after a fantastic time in which I did loads of sketches. Because in fact, what I call here vacation, is not really vacation for me, it is work too.. a dream job though!

And now it ‘s time to gradually complete and publish all this work.

Well, I have a very weird habit: when I read a magazine, I cannot help starting with the last page and browse my way back to the cover. No idea where this comes from -I have researched, I have definitely no Arabian ancestors!-, have often tried to fight it, but I cant: I have to start with the end. The reason might be my impatient nature, I perhaps cannot face that amount of pages until the end? Whatever:  for some obscure reason, I will now start my publishing work with the very last sketch I did, yesterday evening in London.

London Gatwick

We had to come back from Crete through the UK, Kevin having a BCSweet gig  in Great Yarmouth  and I had to wait for him in London. For all kinds of reasons we had booked a room for me in a Travelodge at Gatwick airport. Now, I didn’t know exactly what a travel lodge is, but I imagined some very cheap, cold, impersonal and unpleasant place. But let me tell you: I have been in many hotels in my life, some very posh and some very fancy, in any case much more expensive than the Travelodge… and much worse! I know I am running the risk of being judged as a tasteless and common person – truly a bad reputation for an artist! – but I do love well-thought-out and functional things. This hotel is one of them:  the shower is hot, the shower curtain is not too short, there is enough room around the sink for 2 persons toiletries, the towels are immense, the bed is double and big, the pillows are soft enough to not break my neck and long enough to be cuddled in case of the loved one’s absence, the TV is not microscopic and does not offer hundreds of useless channels, there is a long table-top to display all my painting stuff and start painting without having to move everything else, there is a big wardrobe area set apart, the heating works fine, and the most important thing in the world: there is a water kettle and a tray with instant coffee and milk!!!!! And outside the rooms, there is a vibrant cafeteria/restaurant area with loads of nice stuff to drink and eat, and free speedy internet. Now this is much more than what I got in some 500 euros a night hotels in my luxurious past!!!!!

So, there, I was, Friday evening, ready to pack again for our flight to Alicante next morning, when I noticed one of the leaflets pricing the services of the Travelodge. There were some very cute photos on it, featuring 2 bears having a ball at the Travelodge, drinking coffee, looking at TV and surfing the net. Having started a series of coffee mugs sketches  on this holiday capturing our coffee adventures in Cyprus and Crete, I decided to make a sketch of these bears, strongly inspired by one of these photos. And here it is:

Sleep Tight in The Travelodge - Watercolour and ink sketch, by Miki

By the way: If you really think now that I have a cheap taste, then I must tell you that I am not the only one. Among the bears and also all sorts of people there, of all ages and nationalities who seemed to enjoyed their stay there, I discovered a celebrity of the rock scene, obviously trying to stay incognito behind his sunglasses, probably not to admit publicly that he too loves the Travelodge at Gatwick Airport! He couldn’t fool me though, but well, to respect his wishes,  I won’t tell his name and and considering his aristocratic look, I decided to baptise him

“The Count of  Gatwick Travelodge”

Any similarity with a living person is purely intentional…  

The Count of London Gatwick Travelodge - Watercolour and ink sketch, by Miki

PS: I haven’t been paid for this article, but if the Travelodge company wants to give me  a free life pass for all Travelodges of the world (do they exist outside the UK?), I won’t say no!!!!

As usual, these artworks are available directly online as Giclee print in many different dimensions, on paper or canvas, and also as greeting cards. Just click on the widget below to access my FAA Gallery