She came to Greece five years ago to paint her native animals on his canvas. And now, the renowned Australian painter and one of the most famous animalpainters, Jason Roberts, returns to our country with the exhibition “Greek Animal Breeds – A Hidden Treasure” where sketches and watercolors introduce the Greek short-horned breed to the public. But how did he choose Greek nature? “One of the things that attracted me to Greece was the huge number of recognized traditional animal breeds that the country has – more than anywhere else in Europe,” he told APE.
“As an artist with a special love for animal painting”, he continues, “I was very familiar with Greek art and I was always attracted by the depictions of horses, cattle, sheep and dogs. For example, I have long admired the statues of Molossus in the collections of the Vatican and the British Museum, both Roman copies of a 2nd century Greek bronze. “The thrill of knowing these works so well, and then one day in a village near Trikala spending time with a dozen of these living breathing dogs, like the Molossus of Epirus, was enormous.”
But it was not only this “continuation of history” that, as he says, drew him to our country. It was also the Greek cuisine, “so famously generous and delicious”, at the center of which are the pastures. “From the traditional black pigs in the Peloponnese to the ancient chickens in Crete, they showed me the exceptional quality of life that these animals have in Greece and how this is then translated into the table,” he explains.
The exhibition hosted at the Cultural Center “Melina” of the Municipality of Athens was curated by the Network for the Protection of Indigenous Rural Animals “Almathia”. The Association of Breeders of the Greek Short Breed Cattle Breed, as a member of the “Amalthea” Network but also as an active body of the most numerous breed of native cattle in our country, supported this effort from the first moment. “We have the opportunity to see, perhaps for the first time through images, the whole of this ‘hidden treasure’ of the indigenous Greek tribes” notes Achilles Tsaprailis from the Union of Breeders in APE – MPE. According to him, the Greek short-horned breed is one of the four remaining indigenous Greek cattle breeds, while he had the opportunity to work with the Australian painter. “We spent almost 2 weeks together in January 2017 in snowy Argithea. “Jason does not just paint animals, he is a great person who cares about animals, the way they live, their habits, their history, and of course he loves them,” he said.
However, the work of Jason Roberts is anything but complete. “There is so much to paint!” says. “This report contains about 20 paintings of different races, but this is only a fraction of the number I saw on my eight-month trip. “Not only could I easily paint another 20, but there are many more breeds I have not seen yet.” At the top of his list is Lesvos, where, as he says, lives a very impressive breed of sheep. “Many of the most remote islands also have very interesting animals, such as cattle in Lipsi and sheep and goats in Karpathos and Kasos,” he added.
In the meantime, he holds a number of images: the snow-capped mountains of Karditsa, the white rocks of Zakynthos, the olive groves of Ithaca, the “still and pristine” lake Kerkini with the white pelicans and the herds of buffaloes rolling on the shores. So are you thinking of a new trip to our country? “It’s something I think about every day,” he replies. “There are so many wonderful animals to find and paint!”
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