An image of Skyros taken from its highest point, and made abstract by a technique learned in a day school with Eileen Hudson in 1994, entitled “Recharge your Colour Batteries”. Blocks of colour were placed round the edges of a square of plastic canvas, and the colouring of the internal squares was derived from the combination of the edge squares in line with each, giving four possibilities in each case, though only using two, combined in all sorts of patterns. I used thirty-two different threads, giving eight a side, and chose the colours in the internal squares to conform to the photograph as nearly as possible.
I visited Skyros in 1980, when it was still quite remote and consequently relatively untouristed. Traditional costume was quite commonly worn, and the man from the town hall held regular “surgeries” in one of the cafés in the evening. Since then, it has become more accessible and no doubt is much changed, but to judge from a satellite image parts of this view are still recognisable. The building highest up is the Faltaits museum, with a splendid collection of embroideries, and in front of it is an open space with a rather hideous statue of “Immortal Poetry” in memory of Rupert Brooke who died on the island.
This is the original photograph.