The Work
John Recco: Sacred Greek Landscapes Exhibition
Sep 23 - Nov 5, 2006
Sep 23 - Nov 5, 2006
These paintings are the result of a senior level Fulbright grant for Greece that I received in 2004. My proposal was to focus on the relationship between the landscape and selected temple sites throughout Greece.
As a visual artist, I believed that by studying the sites through first-hand observation, and recording what I observed through painting and photography, I would gain some incite into how the ancient Greeks perceived the landscape.
This project brought me to many beautiful and inspiring locations such as Delphi, Corinth, Mycenae, Nemea, and Olympia. Sites such as Poseidon's temple at Sounion, the Temple of Apollo at Bassae and the Acropolis and Parthenon at Athens allowed me to experience the synergistic energy at work between temple and topography, just as the ancients intended.
In addition to depicting the landscape, I also painted and studied the local flora and fauna - a reflection of the typical circumstances of many sites in that they are located in nature, for this is where the Greeks believed their gods resided.
At Delphi for example, my vantage point adjacent to the temple site of Apollo was an isolated hill that bristled with the activity of numerous Greek tortoises. I had no choice but to document and paint them and eventually their images became part of my Delphi painting.
After five months in Greece of painting studies on site and taking hundreds of digital images, I returned home to my studio in Hoosick, NY and began work on a series of larger paintings that combined the imagery from the smaller studies, photographs and other related sources.
Each of the larger paintings highlights a particular site and brings together the landscape with associated images from the location as well as the mythology related to the site.
Visit the complete Sacred Greek Landscapes Gallery
Knossos, oil on panel, 2005, 48" x 48"
