You found Panos’ Paintbrush
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SANTORINI, GREECE · CURATORS
Everyone photographs Santorini. In Megalochori and Oia, three makers are keeping older arts alive, and they are worth the hundred steps uphill.
Words by Renata Lewis in collaboration with Maria Petrenko
There is an island in the Aegean that by all rights shouldn’t bloom.
Santorini is a volcanic desert, baked by summer sun, swept by dry winds, without a drop of water, and yet it manages to still blossom: with sand lilies, makers and musicians.
Maria Petrenko, who runs tours here, tells me the island has the energy of a woman: creating life in a desert, beauty from buried frescoes, and rhythm from a tradition that nearly died.
When I asked Maria what people say about the island she had a list ready: “touristy, not really Greece, expensive, overrated, magical, breathtaking."
Her definition is a bit different, developed through her years of lived observations:
“Santorini is tough, but inspiring.”
Maria considers her work as a bridge that joins visitors to the real Santorini. Part of her word involves introducing people to the workshops and makers that most would walk past, and doing it thoughtfully means understanding the artists first. “Tourism forgets that artists are people we need to treat with care and respect, not idle curiosity,” she says. She's careful and intutive about the relationships she has built, and she can tell by their mood whether the time for her visitors is right.
I asked her to introduce me to the people she felt represent the soul of the island. She passionately introduce me to three.
Dina, and the women in the frescoes
Dina, standing outside of her workshop in Megalochori, Santorini
Tour buses don't stop in Megalochori, the inland village where you'll find Dina Spanou and her workshop, Spanou Jewelry. The first thing you’ll find is Dina herself, at her bench. She’s always working. She runs the entire business herself, and still, when Maria brings visitors in, Dina takes the extra time to show them her workbench.
When Maria first met her, Dina was subletting an underground space. Today she works out of a wonderfully and tastefully presented shop of her own.
Her most unique pieces are inspired by the ancient frescoes of Akrotiri, a Minoan town on the island buried by a volcanic eruption some 3,600 years ago. The ash preserved its detailed wall paintings: women wearing jewelry, many of them now kept in the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira. She carefully recreates Minoan inspired jewelry straight off those paintings, despite them not being her best-sellers. More important than the money she believes in bringing the women from the frescoes alive through her pieces. The visitors who buy a simple bracelet might never realize how special it is: her drawing inspiration from something that predates her for over 3000 years.
Yannis, the preserver of sound
Yannis Pantazis runs the Symposion Cultural Center in Megalochori. Maria calls him "a larger-than-life presence, a man touched by the Muses and himself a messenger, connecting people to the sounds, stories, and teachings of the ancient world." He revived a bagpiping tradition that nearly went extinct, and he teaches it: after his small-group music presentations, visitors can carve their own reed pipe. He also travels to lecture and curate international projects. He is, Maria says, a warm host and a wonderful friend to those who know him. One Monday when he was closed, his door was open and he carved a client's father's name into a pipe to honour a family legacy.
Maria has watched groups on day tours walk into Symposion and walk out again.
“Imagine coming all this way, and missing how Santorini can sound.”
Yannis' presentations are small-group and personal, and he reads the moment, so coming with a local he knows and trusts, someone who can call ahead is how to approach the experiece. A small-group music presentation runs at 18 euros a person, concerts at 25 euros, with pipe-carving after, and fully private experiences on request.
Panos, and the paintings on the walls
Panos, Santorini's best-selling artist, adding details to his work.
Maria than bring my attention to Santorini's best-selling artist, Panos Karamitsos. He's the resident artist Domus K, a restored 1885 sea captain's house in Oia, now a small art gallery and wine venue with a garden. Panos is based there, where you can walk the gallery, taste wine in the garden, and, if you ask, meet the man behind the paintings. Maria is a fan."He's an excellent host, humble in a world that rewards loudness and panache." Art is his love language, yet he would rather pour you a glass of wine and watch you look at his paintings without saying a word about them. Incidentally, he is also a mixologist.
What he paints is wide: abstract, seascape, cityscape, figure and portrait, modern icons, religious art, all in a layering technique he invented himself, and a lot of it made with raw volcanic materials from Santorini. "Every single piece is unique and tells its own story," he says.
Most people never realize he is the talent behind the paintings on the walls of Domus K 1885, unless Maria points it out. He is more of an enigma, and getting him to talk about his art takes effort, but it pays off tenfold.
One stubborn person
On Santorini right now, there's a revival of music after the dreary post-pandemic silence, and yet, Maria says, there is always just one stubborn person or family between revival and extinction. She tells me a story about a woman who makes prayer beads in Megalochori, who's ready to retire and has no apprentice. There is no funding on a consistent, accessible basis, and Maria calls that the greatest shame of it.
The island was made famous for its sunsets, whitewashed architecture, and idyllic Greek honeymoon visuals. Maria sees something else underneath: "The energy of a woman, a goddess, and the power to change people into more complete versions of themselves without any cliched romance."
If the island is a woman with that kind of power, then she has something to say. Maybe she is asking us a question:
What hides under the woman's beauty and magnetism?
We may find out that the beautiful woman is an artist, who can paint masterpieces. A musician, striving to keep her sound alive. A jeweler, inspired by her island's history.
"The ruins, the sunsets will always be there," Maria reminds me.
"But the craftsperson will not."
TRAVELLER’S FIELD GUIDE
When to visit, who to meet, and how to plan your time.