Road to Kalderimi, Astypalea, Greece
This is a painting of the road leading to Kalderimi, where we stayed in a small "traditional house" while visiting the Greek island of Astypalea in spring 2023.
This tiny Dodecanese island has a harsh beauty, with dry, rocky mountains and hills spilling down into the Aegean. There weren't many trees, but amidst all the rocks life flourished -- beautiful flowers, colourful spikey plants, aromatic herbs, grazing goats, darting lizards, and hives of bees busily making Astypalean thyme honey were everywhere.
We walked a lot every day: from the house to the beach, into town, and back again. The distances were short but the hills were steep. The roads twisted up and down the inclines, and most of the locals wisely zoomed around on scooters, or in small cars. Some occasionally stopped to offer us a lift, but we were on vacation and never in a hurry.