I believe in the free minded artist who in spite manifestos allows for a journey to take place, unknown, fearful and lonely, driven by a stimulus, recounting memories of his experiences of sorrow, pains, fears, doubts, the conscious and subconscious together, facing the challenge of planning the means of colour, form, space, balance, crescendos, materials, to deliver the essence and the magical poetics.
I completed my Tertiary studies as a scholarship recipient, at the School of Fine Arts Athens Metsovio Polytechnio. I majored in Painting and Theatrical Set Design under the guidance of Yiannis Moralis , Dimitris Mitaras and Vassili Vassiliadis.
As a practising artist I exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, got involved in architectural public projects, theatrical performances , children book illustration as well as Art projects for children.
I was born in Anninata, Kefallonia in 1936 and arrived in Australia 30 years later in 1966. I always had an urge to work with wood – to sculpt it, sand it and carve it. In 1970 I created the ‘Kri-Kri’ of Crete from a forgiving, soft wood and in 1971 the classic trireme. A third work was produced in1974 of a Dachsund. I did not refer to imagery or models for these work, nor did I intend to create them – it was as if they needed to be produced based on an internal desire. In the early 1980’s a similar urged prompted me to illustrate graphite images of nature and in time, I moved onto acrylic painting. During this decade, there were significant findings of long lost Chinese sculptures and these prompted me to duplicate one of the a horse’s head that was unearthed. I felt compelled to pursue my wood carving craving, without having had any professional tutoring and without obtaining any formal certification. I feel that I have no choice but to produce these works, as they are called upon from within.
Angy pursued art in high school and attended La Trobe University where he studied Art History. He also took up practical art classes in life drawing at RMIT. After completing his Arts degree and a Diploma in Librarianship, he commenced work in the public library system. He continued his love for painting, initially working with acrylics on canvas, board and various other surfaces. His first exhibition was held during the 1990’s at the Bridge Road Gallery in Richmond, followed by exhibitions at Cotham Gallery 101, Kew and the Tacit Contemporary Art Gallery, Collingwood. He has also participated in a number of ‘Antipodean Palette’ annual art exhibitions at Steps Gallery in Carlton, Melbourne.
“I am basically self-taught. My background in Art History has given me a passion for the works of The Old Masters and their subject matter. I paint mainly on board and at times on canvas. I transitioned from painting with acrylics to painting with oils as I felt acrylics were too restrictive. When I changed medium, I found oil paints too slippery and took much longer to dry. To create a rich textured surface, I developed an impasto technique using predominately sticks, the palette knife and to a lesser extent, the brush…An artist’s aim is to create a ‘successful’ picture, by any means.
I have always loved creating landscapes and the illusion of being able to ‘enter’ an artwork to explore its rich, colourful, mysterious or sinister world. I hope my work invites viewers to enter my world. I am also fascinated by the ambiguous and abstract forms found in nature.
I was born in Greece and arrived in Australia with my parents in 1965. Lately, I desire to return to my roots and to visit Greece regularly. Fascinated by its landscape, many of my works are scenes of Greece…and of course Australia. Do I see Greece through Australian eyes or Australia through Greek eyes? You decide.”
Stella Grammenos-Dimadis is an award winning writer, director and producer at Medea Films, with a passion for cinematic, provocative and compelling storytelling. Her film work is complemented by her art practice which is figurative and expressive in style. She was awarded her Masters in Film at Deakin University in 2012, after completing two B.A’s, 1988 (La Trobe University), 1991 (Phillip Institute of Technology)- (Fine Art) and a Diploma in Education, 1992 (The University of Melbourne). Her filmography encompasses both drama and documentary which thematically revolves around societal issues, covering themes such as ageing, migration, end of life choices and the healing power of art. She is a member of the Australian Director’s Guild and malvern Artist’s Society.
“There is never a quiet moment in my mind. It is always thinking of ways to move forward with the many societal mishaps that humans are faced with; with this comes a culmination of art that challenges the questions, Have I done enough? Will it ever be enough?”
Recently she has been able to dedicate equal time to both her film work and art practice which has been conducive to her creativity. She has been on the multicultural advisory board of Channel 31, Vice President for Women in Film and Television, Victoria, and in 2018 was the recipient for the Community History Awards by the Royal Historical Society of Victoria and the Public Records Office of Victoria for her online series, ‘Migrant Stories’.
Her art work revolves around four different themes; nature, separated into animals and flowers, fashion with the impacts of consumerism, and consequently the many uniforms that women wear without knowing, as well as an ode to her Greek background.
Inherently the images that she creates at first seem child like and playful, bursting forth with confident brightness, but on closer observation the works are thought out, constructed with images taken from the Western world that she’s inherited. Gold leaf is placed as a means of enlightenment, drawing the viewer to that which is of importance in some way, embellishing the motifs that are used.
Her works show a glimpse of her identity as a woman, mother, wife, friend, artist, filmmaker, business owner, and her navigation of these roles in a Western society that is brandished with brands that consumers, the planet, are constantly exposed to. Whilst she references the world, it is only a reference from her inner responses to it. She is influenced by Jung, revelling in the collective consciousness; the symbols, her dreams, as well as the German expressionists, borrowing the explosive emotions adapted into her art.
When she is not immersed in her film work and art, she is busy with her four adult children, teaching, attempting to turn traditional patisserie creations to a vegan mix, travelling and dancing, the latter for her is an absolute non negotiable in life.
To view more of Stella’s artwork visit https://bastet-galleries.myshopify.com
“In memory of Vlase, whose work had a profound effect on the cultural life of the Greek Community of Melbourne, with the request that the following excerpt and images about the life and work of Vlase Zanalis be used for inclusion in the Greek Australian Art Directory (GAAD).”
Vlase Zanalis was born on the Greek island of Castellorizo in 1902 and migrated to Western Australia in 1914. He would gain national acclaim in 1934 for his “The Birth of a Nation”, but it was his work after 1948 on the Australian landscape and Indigenous themes that dominated his life paintings.
Zanalis’ contribution to the Greek dimension of Australian culture may be partly seen in the iconography of churches across the country. For many Greek Australians it is for his iconography in Greek Orthodox churches in Queensland, NSW and Western Australia that he is best known. Beyond the religious paintings, however, Zanalis captured in sweeping landscapes the contrasting red soils and white trees of the Pilbara, the rugged grandeur of Central Australia and the unique character of the Kimberley.
Midway through his career, Zanalis began a relationship with Aboriginal culture, which dominated his art for the last twenty years of his life. He became one of the first non-Aboriginal artists to value Indigenous Australians and their culture. Vlase Zanalis died in 1973 and was cremated at Perth’s Karrakatta Cemetery, WA.
Vlase (Palassi) Zanalis – a snippet about his artwork and indigenous Australians by Dr John N Yiannakis OAM
These included works of the Kimberley – where he had spent eight months in 1948 camping at Derby, Cockatoo Island, Yampi Peninsula, the King Leopold Ranges and Fitzroy Crossing – and the Northwest as well as his first Aboriginal subjects, painted at Forrest River Mission in the east Kimberley. The visit to Forrest River Mission in 1949 was the artist’s first contact with traditional/remote Aborigines and their art and began a twenty-year fascination with Aboriginal themes for Zanalis.
The subjects of his outback and Aboriginal art were drawn from the fringe-life of Darwin, from visits to Kimberley cattle stations and three Western Australian missions: Forrest River Anglican Mission, west of Wyndham, Mowunjum, a Presbyterian Mission on the outskirts of Derby and Jigalong in the Western Desert which was administered by the Apostolic Church.
Baobab trees, or boabs, feature in several of his Kimberley paintings. The ancient boab at Dadaway lagoon, near the Forrest River Mission village appeared, in at least two paintings. Zanalis knew of the historical significance of the tree. He had been told that the first pastoralists venturing into the area built a slab stone homestead near the tree in 1887. He was shown the cross, carved into the trunk that marked the grave of the first white child born in the east Kimberley.
He is allegedly the first non-aboriginal artist to see the spiritual significance of icons in Aboriginal belief and his Aboriginal portraits form a unique collection in Australian art. Zanalis’ Orthodox background and commissioned iconography from an earlier time gave him a sense of understanding and appreciation of the spiritual depth of traditional Aboriginal wall painting. He had a fascination with the icons Aborigines painted on sheltered cliff walls ten kilometres from Forrest River Mission. But when he applied these to his art, he was not always true to the original.
One painting shows men before a wall decorated with icons that are mostly from Zanalis’ imagination. Much of the wall art, though ‘aboriginal’ in appearance, is too carefully arranged and not true to the original.
Zanalis saw the indigenous Australians as a proud and dignified people and imposed elements of classical Greek culture on his portrayal of them. In several his paintings their stance and appearance are reminiscent of ancient Greek statues of the Olympian gods.
Here’s part of Zanalis’ own reflections on his outback artwork when, in 1967, he wrote to the Assistant Commissioner for Taxation explaining his Aboriginal Memorial Collection comprising 88 paintings:
“Since retiring and receiving my pension I have devoted my time to the study of the life and customs of the Aborigines. Within the last two years I have had two expeditions into the Western Desert. My intention is to record the life of this fast vanishing race, and I happen to be the only artist in the Commonwealth who has penetrated into their life and secret ceremonies.”
The Literary Journal of the “Greek Cultural League”, in 1988, citing an unnamed art critic of The West Australian, said of Zanalis:
“With the death of Vlase Zanalis [1973], the northern Aborigines have lost a true friend, and Australia one of the most dedicated and sincere artists; a man able to get to the inner truth of a subject and put it on canvas. He was a pioneer of the north and of Australian art and his endurance and dedication were in the best European tradition.”
Noted historians, Dr John Yiannakis and Dr Neville Green, reasearched the life of Zanalis and produced a publication entitled, ‘Vlase Zanalis: A Greek Australian Artist’ (LaTrobe University, 2003).
Professor George Kanarakis also wrote a chapter about the artist in his book, ‘In the Wake of Odysseus: Portraits of Greek Settlers in Australia’ (1997).
In memory of Peter, whose work had a profound effect on the cultural life of the Greek Community of Melbourne, with the request that the following excerpt and images about the life and work of Peter Tsitas be used for inclusion in the Greek Australian Art Directory (GAAD).
A deep interest in the environment and how people respond to place is at the core of Peter Tsitas’ work – as an architect and town planner, and an artist and photographer. At first glance, the sleepy coastal fishing village of Warneet, at the head of Western Port Bay, has little in common with the island country of Cuba in the Caribbean. Yet Peter’s response to both reveal an eye trained to look at where and how we live.
While Warneet and Cuba are very different, both are places that have been left relatively untouched by progress. Warneet is quiet, a recreational fishing village surrounded by wetlands fringing Western Port that are internationally protected for the large number of native birds, animals and plants. Peter has been visiting regularly for 30 years and has captured the surroundings in a variety of media in that time.
Whether photographing, drawing, using pen and ink or pastels, the isolated beauty, ebbing tides and wide-open sky has proved a restorative and ongoing fascination for the artist. Not much happens at Warneet except for the tide going in and out, the fishermen standing preoccupied and silent on the pier and the ubiquitous boats sailing the inlet and bay. The mangroves, which are very forceful as they try to assert their dominance, have proved another enduring interest for Peter.
In 2005, Peter travelled to Cuba and based a major photographic series on his experience (Cuba Now! Steps Gallery 2006). These drawings in oil pastel explore habitat and while they contain no people, the presence of the local community seeps through. As a town planner, Peter appreciated the human scale of Cuba’s cities and towns, and the repetition of stylistic elements in the architecture. While Warneet is about nature, Cuba is about how people live; Peter was fascinated by the tight lanes and the constant element of surprise. “You’d walk around a corner, hear singing and all of a sudden you are at a café with live music, people coming together to share food and have fun. The sense of belonging is paramount.
Bill Mousoulis is one of Australia’s most distinctive filmmakers – prolific, resourceful, and independent, with 10 features and 100 shorts to his name since 1982. Most of his work was made in his hometown of Melbourne, but in 2009 he based himself in Greece (producing two features there), and from 2017 he has been based in Adelaide.
Mousoulis’ work is unconventional and eclectic. Influenced by the realist, humanist and formalist cinema of European auteurs such as Robert Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard, Roberto Rossellini and Chantal Akerman, he has created a body of films of remarkable variety, across different genres. His films have screened at over 500 events, including film festivals such as the Melbourne International Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Athens International Film Festival, and others, picking up various awards.
A number of his films are held within the National Film and Sound Archive. He has also been involved in film culture, in various ways, as a critic, programmer, and committee member of different organisations.
In 1985 he founded the Melbourne Super-8 Film Group; in 1999 he founded the online film journal Senses of Cinema; in 2003 he founded the website Melbourne Independent Filmmakers; and in 2018 he founded the website Pure Shit: Australian Cinema.
Since 2018, together with Chris Luscri, he curates the Australian film programs Unknown Pleasures and Australian New Wave. He also retains connections in Greece, being a member of the Greek Film Academy since 2014.
I’m an independent design professional (creative/graphic) – since 1979 – having worked for some of Australia’s best design studios and managing my own creative consultancies. I have always kept a low profile over the years. I was invited to establish an in-house creative, design and production centre for D&D Global Group in 2001 – one of Australia’s most innovative and progressive cross-media companies. We were successful two years running in winning the prestigious printing industries of America premier print awards – [Benjamin Franklin Award] for best of category for use of environmentally sound materials – Certificate of Merit for special innovation – Certificate of Merit for print and graphic arts self-promotion – and for the first time an Australian print company was awarded – “They said it couldn’t be done” award.
“Creativity is an expression of emotions released to help process moments of uncertainty, fear and joy”
Abstract and Geometric art allows me to evaluate the contrasts of life. This drives my passion. I’m a digital abstract designer and artist exploring my personal truths, and connecting to my inner thoughts and feelings, which relate back to my life experiences.
With a personal and professional commitment to visual expression, I create unique and immersive, abstract digital art.
Geometric Structures – lines, patterns, shapes, and forms, leads me to draw inspiration from my surrounding natural environment – it inspires me to study – the visual perception and power of colour – saturation, hues, lightness, and balance.
My art expresses, hope for the future – it captures an emotional feeling in an abstract contemporary style that creates freedom from reality and reflects originality with an inconsistent and unpredictable nature.
I explore shape, colour, form, function and composition which allows each person’s own experiences, views and vision to interpret my work in their own highly personal and unique way – “it is not a static image”.
Digital Geometric Abstract Artist Original Contemporary, Geometric Abstract Art Digital Fine Art + Wallpaper Murals
I’m a resin and multimedia artist. I draw my inspiration from my environment and am constantly inspired by Mother Nature. I explore the concept of the ocean through organic movement and fluidity. My work reveals an intuitive approach with fluid compositions, particularly suggestive of ocean-like forms that explore the interactions between the shallow and the deep. My layered works convey the ambiguity and complexity of my local environment.
Creating artwork has allowed me to explore dynamic colours, organic movement and and fluidity.
