1. A characteristic of your art in the depiction of art is the complete lack of its savagery, why this choice?

I paint my last landscapes and figures with a greater peace of mind and stability than in the past. I am now in the phase of my life where every savagery has calmed down inside me and I am looking for the expression of the mildest emotions that give value to human life.

2. The main material of your works is oil, do you think this brings some limitations to the result or on the contrary releases it?

Art is not limited by materials. Whatever material you have at your disposal and whatever technique you use, you can achieve it as far as you wish and as free as your ideas and your spiritual horizons are.

3. What role does symbolism play for you in your work?

Symbolism is an element that is strongly present in every art form. In my personal work I choose to give the symbolism to a second level and not in an obvious way. The meanings of each painting work subconsciously in me and many times I discover things about myself and my works. That is, it is a process that happens on its own, most of the time.

4. Do you work on your works free from an image that acts as a guide, based solely on your imagination or not?

I get inspiration from something visible, concrete and my imagination creates the forms, the color harmonies. I add and subtract according to what I have in my mind to imprint on the canvas, in order to express the thoughts and feelings at any given time. After all, painting takes you where it wants to go. You start with something you have in mind and the result, often different, surprises you.

5. Landscapes of nature and places of the soul. How is this connection between nature and soul made?

I used to paint only figures because I believed that only with human figures could I give a part of my soul. Later I experienced an emotional connection with nature and each element of it separately and I realized how many thoughts and feelings can be born through this communication. After all, man is an element of nature and interacts with everything around him. Many times the elements of nature depicted in my paintings, such as the sea or a tree, have for me energy and soulful properties.

6. At first glance, your works gave me the impression of the momentary and immovable. Is this something you want to flow from your projects and if so why?

I want my paintings to be an imaginary occasion that either depicts a landscape or an emotion, in which the viewer can stay or feel it for a moment, or have it in his soul and body forever. I want time to be lost through my paintings, which is a social construction anyway and the moment to last as long as the viewer wants each time.

7. If you did not have the choice to depict nature in your works, what else would you choose as a point of expression?

As I mentioned above, I often use human forms as a means of expressing my painting. Beyond that, expression can come from anything. Like people, landscapes, still life. The issue is what will inspire you at every moment, what needs you have to express and how, either more subtly or more obviously, you choose the corresponding theme for your painting.

https://thessculture.gr/synenteyxeis/theano-skarlatoy-thelo-mesa-apo-toys-pi/?fbclid=IwAR0BgyZeSAJCAx_X29s64dhqWRSzN2TGuJDbwXyioVBN7UgyFR8bsV2UBfQ

Govedarou Art Gallery, 5, G. Papandreou (former Antheon Street, Georgiou bus stop) organizes in its space the solo exhibition of the artist Theano Skarlatou entitled "Landscapes of Nature and Places of the Soul".

Art critic Pepi Rigopoulou notes:

Nature, sometimes spontaneous and sometimes in dialogue with human intervention, is the constant "model" or motif in the new series of works by Theano Skarlatou: A silent cluster of trees or an enlarged detail of colorful foliage, or even the rough sea with a pier and a boat moored next to it. The meteoric light, a light sometimes soft, without sharp contrasts, and sometimes penetrating, a lightning that penetrates them and gives them something fantastic, is what gives life to the foliage and the branches or the waters that persist even in their splash in their peace. Color-to-color transitions seek harmony more than surprise. Nature, as depicted by the painter, has no elements of savagery. Behind the foliage, the branches and the trunks of its trees do not threaten the eyes of a beast or a human. The image invites we would rather say the viewer's gaze to stand on it with confidence, to enjoy the play of colors, to immerse themselves in the mystery of their reflections to win a break, a breath. Theanos's works want to be an opening, a different window that does not look at the smog that pollutes cities but suggests escaping to a post-realist elsewhere.

Its material is oil, worked in such a way as to give the image something of the softness of watercolor, and to allow a combination of precision and fluidity. Her work may have more to do with a post-impressionism that nurtures to capture some anecdotal aspects of the moment, rather than the various versions of expressionism, which seek to depict the once-stormy encounter of "nature within" with the external stimulus. However, the moment in her works acquires another dimension, because the linear time that characterizes it meets and intersects the circular of nature. Its landscapes are symbolic places. And this is because the painting imprint of nature is also the fingerprint of the painter and every landscape, no matter how objectively it records the outside world, is indirectly even a place of the soul.

Opening: Tuesday, March 22, 18.00 - 21.30

Exhibition duration: March 22 to April 9, 2022

Opening hours:

Monday, Wednesday & Friday: 11 a.m.- 2 p.m.

Tuesday, Thursday: 11 a.m.- 2 p.m.& 6 p.m.- 8 p.m.

Saturday: 11 a.m.- 2 p.m.

Closed on Sundays

*To enter the gallery, it is mandatory to use a mask and show a certificate of illness or vaccination.Maximum number of people staying in the area at the same time: 27 people.

With the support of:  Polis Magazino & ThessCulture