Art and crafts – Judy and Valerie On the Road

Metsovo

Metsovo is a beautiful town in the Pindos mountains and is often called ‘The Jewel of Epirus’. It is a Vlach town, a people who are historically nomadic shepherds who’ve lived in the region for generations and whose origins are from neighbouring Balkan countries.

It is a village that has managed to maintain its traditional stone architecture, which used to be typical for the mountainous regions of Epirus, a place once famous for its stone masons: many buildings here have the traditional schist stone roofs, rather than the tile ones.

There is a trail going through and around the town called the Ursa trail. Ursa is Vlach for bear. As speakers of french and portuguese will recognise Vlach is a romance language.

Folk Art Museum

The Metsovo Folk Art Museum is also well worth a visit. It’s is a beautiful stone house which belonged to Evangelos Averof-Tositsas, who was also foreign minister. He bequeathed it to the town. Each room is furnished as it was in the past, with wooden floors,ceilings and furniture, including beautifully carved chests and rocking cradles, and gorgeous, richly coloured woven tapestries on the walls.

Art Gallery

The Averoff Art Gallery was really interesting. It’s on three floors – ground floor and two lower floors. There is a permanent exhibition which displays a selection of 250 paintings, drawings, sculptures and engravings by the foremost Greek artists of the 19th and 20th century with a great variety of landscapes, still life and portraits, including portraits of the town’s main benefactor and his family. There was also a fascinating photography exhibition by Kostas Balafas called “Travels in Metsovo”. The black and white photographs gave a picture of life in Metsovo in the 1960’s and 70’s. Particularly striking was a wall of portraits of older men who had clearly led their lives outdoors. They were all so different from one another, mostly with very wrinkled faces, full of character

Wild Camping

We stayed a couple of nights above Metsovo in the car park at the Ski Centre which has a wonderful spring (N39.78487, E21.15880). Lots of stray/wild dogs which were not aggressive and which looked so sad we ended up giving them some tinned sardines! The first day we went into the town but the second day we went for a walk on the Ursa Trail which we could access directly from the car park. We of course managed to get lost and were ‘rescued’ by an Israeli couple who introduced us to an App called ‘AllTrails’ which I definitely recommend.

Metsovo

Metsovo FolkLore Museum

We arrived in Metsovo just as the rain started to fall so we repaired to a nearby restaurant for a delicious bean soup. Unfortunately by the time we finished our meal the heavens had opened completely. Undaunted, we continued uphill and found this wonderful museum. It was definitely worth getting wet for.

With a population of shepherds it is only natural that Metsovo would have a culture of weaving. The textiles are utilitarian and are used as household furnishings, blankets, carpets, cushions, all heavily decorated in colorful designs that have spiritual and cultural significance. Other products of the village include the colorful embroidered traditional costumes, including the flokata, a black sleeveless coat or vest with a red band that identified the people from Metsovo during the Ottoman period.

We had our own individual tour round the old house in which the museum is situated. It was owned by a Swiss banker Tositsa who’s family came from the town. The guide told us that the winters were so harsh that the family had to spend seven months of the year inside the house and so had to store enough food to last them throughout the winter.

Here is a link to the Folklore Museum where you can see photographs www.metsovomuseum.gr

Thessaloniki

Sculptures

Every street you walk down has sculptures and in beautiful locations – by the sea, in squares etc. The first below is the memorial to the Jewish Greeks, the three following relate to Alexandra the Great, the fifth had no plaque but is very powerful and the last ‘Umbrellas’ was placed in 1997 when the city was the European Capital of Culture. I found an App called ‘Strolling around Thessaloniki’ which details many of the sculptures and other sights in the city.

Museum of Archeology

The Archeology museum had some very interesting collections. The photographs below come from ‘The Gold of Macedon’ tracing the use of gold through the ages, most of the artefacts coming from tombs.

Folk Art and Ethnological Museum

This museum is housed in a beautiful old building known as Villa Modiano built in 1906 by the architect Eli Modiano for the banker Jacob Modiano and which survived the great fire of 1917. The collections consist of woven textiles, embroidery, tools etc, plus replicas of the equipment and wooden machinery used in mills to grind flour, pound wool (fulling) and even saw planks of wood.

Street scenes

We spent several delightful hours wandering around the market and bazaar area in the city, it was a vibrant area with whole areas dedicated to particular products as in India.

Makrinitsa

Makrinitsa is a village about 40 minutes further north from Anakasias. There is a folk museum there, and we were told that there is a cafe with paintings by Theofilos on the walls.

However … be advised not to go there in a camper van/ motorhome. The village is high up and located all the way up the hillside, so numerous levels. The road is narrow and very steep with continuous hairpin bends. In addition when you get there is no where to park. So unfortunately although we made it up to the village we couldn’t stop, except to do a rather anxious making 3-point turn.

Artist Theofilos

Went to a little museum in Anakasias just north of Velos in the Pelion to see the work of Theofilos. He was born in 1870 and scraped a living by painting on the walls of houses and shops. He was a ‘naive’ artist painting folk scenes combining myths with ordinary events. Many of his paintings involve the 1821 War of Independence.

The house in the village was owned by Yannis Kontos and Theofilos decorated the upper wing. The paintings are wonderful and if you’re in the Pelion definitely worth a visit. Here are some photos of the house and one of Theofilos in the tradition dress which he used to wear. It was not possible to take any photos of the paintings themselves but you can see them on Pinterest

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/jabou19/folk-painter-theofilos/

Island of Burano

A beautiful island 30 minutes further on from Murano. Picturesque streets and waterways with brightly painted houses.

Burano is the home of the lacemaking which used to be renowned across Europe. Now, a lacemaking museum is all that is left – fashions change.

Archive poster advertising the lacemaking school.

Murano Glass

The island of Murano (20 minutes from Venice by vaporetto no 3) is famous for its glass furnaces. The museum there traces the history of their glass making ending with some beautiful modern pieces.

Venice

We stayed four days in Venice visiting museums and galleries and generally soaking up the atmosphere.

Street Scenes

Venice Campo Santa Margherita
Venice Grand Canal
Venice – Fondamenta del Souero
Venice floating market stall
Venice Grand Canal

Peggy Guggenheim Museum

Another visit to this fantastic museum/gallery which is a definite must. It’s quite small so very manageable and has a lovely garden with sculptures. It is also right on the Grand Canal.

Silver Bed Head, Alexander Calder 1945-6
Peggy Guggenheim Museum – Leger 1919
Peggy Guggenheim Museum – Jackson Pollock, Alchemy 1947
Jackson Pollock – Detail from Alchemy
Yves Tanguy – earing for Peggy Guggenheim
Yves Tanguy – earing for Peggy Guggenheim
Peggy Guggenheim
Joan Miró
Kandinsky – Upward
Jackson Pollock – The Moon Woman
Jackson Pollock – Direction

Palazzo Ducale

Palace where the duke (doges) resided. Very palatial.

Paula Rego

Visited the amazing Paula Rego museum in Cascais. The building itself has won awards and provides a very suitable space for her work .

She uses traditional Portuguese folk and fairy tales as the basis for much of her work and through them explores love and seduction, power and subjugation, fear and terror. Some of these paintings are truly frightening, the way the stepmother is humiliating Snow White, the fear present in the body of Pinocchio.

Reclining Hippo from Disney’s Fantasia 1995

The Red Riding Hood series gives quite a different perspective on the tale.

If you go to Lisbon do get the train out to Cascais and visit the ‘Casa dad Histórias Paula Rego ‘ it’s well worth it.

Portalegre Tapestry Museum

The last time we went to Portalegre we visited the Tapestry factory thinking we were at the museum. This time we managed to find the museum … and what a fantastic place. One of the staff who spoke excellent English gave us our own guided tour, describing the origins of the tapestry industry in the town and showing us some of the artists, their paintings and how the art form has progressed over the past 50 years. The particular techniques they use are protected by law and no one else is allowed to use them. Here are photos of some of the works.