The Forgotton Island

With the autumn weather quite overcast here in Shropshire (at the moment - I am keeping my fingers crossed for an Indian Summer!), my thoughts keep returning to the much warmer weather that we had on our holiday to Crete in August. Mainly I am remembering the lovely island of Spinalonga and have recently been making some sketches of the island. Above is a pencil sketch I made of one of the Venetian fortifications on the island with the sea and part of the mainland in the background

I wanted to try and capture the feeling that this was once an island that people wanted to forget, but also the beauty of the island that it is today. So I made this acrylic wash and mixed media painting in my sketchbook:

The blue shapes along the bottom of the painting are reminiscent of Venetian architecture as the Venetians once occupied Spinalonga and helped to shape its character.

Then this progressed to a painting on canvas 24cm x 30cm: