painting workshop dedicated to Theophilos
for 16+ teenagers & adults
Theophilos, the visionary painter, humble, naif and primitive, “had the huge courage to walk through life based exclusively on the goodness of his soul, totally free of everyday passions and surrendered with a child’s gullibility to his dreams”. Odysseas Elytis
By focusing on his heroes he tries and succeeds in dealing, with something as an automatic defence, the teasing, the bullying and the maltreatment of society, always free, keeping his needs to a minimum —a plate of food, a single garment— and not engaging in dialogue but letting his pictures speak on his behalf.
In this workshop we shall ‘read’ his paintings, find the ideas and emotions in them and then we shall collectively paint one of his creations with the same Byzantine aura that his works always exuded with enthusiasm.
Emilia Tsekoura
Born in Athens, Emilia Tsekoura studied at the Art Communication & Learning team in Athens (1978-80), at the Boston Museum’s School of Fine Arts (1980-84) and at the same time at Tufts University, graduating with a Bachelor in Arts & Sciences.
Between 1988 and 2013, Emilia taught at the Athens College using differentiation teaching, art therapy and the method of Harvard University’s Project Zero (TFU, Visual Thinking). To this day she has had several solo shows in Greece and the US and has participated in numerous group exhibitions.
She is motivated by concepts originating from her own nature and expressed in autobiographical and expressionist ways: woman, Goddess/Idol, birth, genesis, the ovoid, rebirth. The philosophy of constant change in life, nature and art is always the key principle behind her every work.
One element in her art is symbolism and the translation of icons into archetypes. The egg, the sphere, the round, the zero or “nothing” and their reflections, the heart, the spiral, the geometries of nature and many other familiar symbols and concepts appear in various guises, media and materials throughout her artistic course.
She works in Athens and teaches at the art workshops of Fougaro in Nafplio since 2013.
