Aristotelis Demetriou

Aristotelis Demetriou was born in Pafos in 1962. He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts between 1982 and 1987 in the workshop of Panagiotis Tetsis and Demetris Mytaras.

Cerulean Infinity

With bold, fulsome strokes, Aristotelis Demetriou explores countless, resplendent shades of a blue tonality, the mingle and interwine, in a linear array, with emerald or lime-green gradations and mystical highlights of purple, in a spectacular contrast with ochreous, earthly hues.

His mastery of landscape painting is taken, with his new series of compositions and seascapes, a step further, through his succinct and abbreviated images of coastal vistas and swimming-pool incidents, dividing the picture plane into simple, parallel, horizontally disposed bands, with strips of pebbles and stones, in the forefront, stretches of fallow land, strips of sky or clusters of flowering bushes, in the background , with a expanse of poor or sea water, in the middle, either dominating or overflooding the canvas from one end to the other.

The cerulean stillness, juxtaposed with barren of fecund shores, in an abrupt, convex and concave schematic alternation of capes and bays, provides a source of an unprecedented visual interest, I both form and colour, This is reinforced by breeze, casting and revealing a wide chromatic scale of reflections in the sun-dappled water and liberating white, frothy tips of foam, in a volume engendering that imparts space with the sensual luminosity of a magic infinity.

The plethora of light, sweeps descriptive details away, erasing face features in the sunbathing female figure, turning the built environment, at the far site, into minimalist dots, concentrating on nature’s inner voice, capturing, thus, the ambience evoked by the coasts of Paphos and echoing summer moments of serenity, rest and rumination.

Interview by Natalie Hadjiadamos