A New Way of Looking at Art
Drawing in Ink by Panagiotis Protopsaltis
A View of the Unconscious
‘Creating images in ink is a kind of meditation unlike my oils (portraits) which are more calculated and based on studies of family and friends,’ says Panagiotis Protopsaltis. ‘Using ink started early for me – I remember my mother rushing around saying that I couldn’t use ink in the house so I must have been messy. At school we used to write in ink with an ink nib and well ... and I was obsessed with images and calligraphy so ink was a very early beginning.’
‘When I think about it,’ he continues, ‘I have always been interested in images. I grew up in a house full of icons in a small village at the base of Mount Cithaeron in West Attica, Greece. My mother had a chapel inside the house packed with Byzantine icons in a small room. Her religiosity was astonishing and it stuck on me like mud … it was everywhere and penetrated the atmosphere of the household. My older sisters rejected it but I remember being completely fascinated with the ritual of incense and the singing of prayers. One particular memory was when my mother got me up at 4 in the morning and took me in the snow to a small 7th century monastery called Agios Nikolaos to catch the liturgy. These early influences never leave you – it had a chaotic wildness about it and was packed with visual imagery that stays with me even now.’
I was also influenced by the Moderns and Francis Bacon when I left Greece as a young man for London in the 60s … but the images are my own and come out of nowhere and I don’t know exactly how it works. In a funny way I was brought up in a metaphorical language – a kind of psychological labyrinth – and since Sigmund put his own spin on it, we are beginning to see meanings in everything.’
