Athens & the Greek Islands

A month of painting, teaching, and exchange · Winter 2022

Erin McGee Ferrell spent a month living and working in Athens, Greece, combining private art teaching for a family with painting, museum visits, and exploration. Based in Koukaki, near the Acropolis and Parthenon, she walked the city with her painting materials and worked from the windows of her apartment. Visits to Hydra and Santorini extended this period of concentrated observation and making—an informal artist residency shaped by everyday encounters.

A quieter Greece

With tourism disrupted by COVID, Ferrell remembers Athens and the islands feeling almost entirely free of tourists. There were no queues, and places usually associated with crowds felt uncrowded. By the end of the month, the everyday rhythm of walking, teaching, and painting had become familiar: she felt like a local.

Painting everyday Athens

The fish and meat markets of Athens became places to paint directly from life. Moving between the marketplaces, neighborhood streets, and her apartment, Ferrell developed paintings rooted in the city’s daily rhythms. The rooftops and neighboring homes of Koukaki offered a recurring subject, seen from the same vantage point as weather and light changed.

Koukaki under snow

A major snowstorm interrupted the month, closing access to the Parthenon and bringing much of Athens to a standstill. Ferrell remembers three days of disruption. From her apartment window, she painted watercolors of neighboring homes and architecture covered in layers of snow.

These works record an unexpected winter landscape within the city. The January 2022 storm is documented in the European Space Agency’s Athens under snow.

Artistic exchange in Athens and Hydra

During a day at the Athens School of Fine Arts, Ferrell met and spoke with professors and students and joined a gathering at their invitation. Those conversations led to an invitation to visit the school’s Hydra Artistic Station, its island retreat in the historic Tombazis mansion.

On Hydra, she painted en plein air from high on the hillside. She also visited Santorini, continuing to work outdoors from elevated viewpoints. Painting on the islands became another way of learning the places through sustained attention to their architecture and surroundings.

Museums and paper marbling

Museum visits accompanied the daily painting practice. Ferrell also took a paper-marbling workshop, learning traditional techniques as a participant. Alongside teaching and painting, this hands-on experience with materials formed part of the month’s artistic exploration.

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