The work is linked to the current summer exhibition at Il Palmerino in Florence, part of the “Estate Fiorentino”: “Altri Giardini”, works by Italian artist Elena Salvini Pierallini (1934-2024) known as ESP.

Having been given free rein to express myself in whatever way I wished, I ranged over so many aspects of my work and life. You can see some of the work in progress here as it came together in the studio, where I worked with scissors and glue putting together handwritten and printed texts in Greek, Italian and English and images that included original paintings, photos and xerox copies, threading together thoughts, memories and dreams as I shaped my stories. ESP created community events in Florence in which artists could produce and share works in conversation with her ‘Borse Nere’, or ‘Black Bags’. She would create concertina books filling only half of each book with her own artwork. She tucked each of her art books in large black bags symbolising the subconscious, and gifted them to other artists, with an invitation to fill both bag and book however they wished. The artists would then meet in public spaces and institutions for performances where they would bring out their books and discuss the works together in front of an audience. ESP’s daughters have gifted seven incomplete art books from their mother’s archive to me and six other contemporary artists to continue the art conversation their mother began decades ago. A public presentation by participating artists is scheduled for September 22 2026 from 5:30 to 7pm at MAD – Murate Art District, a former convent turned women’s prison, which became a contemporary art centre in 2011, hosting major exhibitions. Alongside my own work there will be the work of artists Elena Santoni, Ylenia Pigozzo, Veronika Bromberg, Irena M Kongsuwan, Sophie Robinson and Victor Rees who will share their works with the public and artists from previous iterations of the “borse nere” performances.

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I was invited to exhibit at the Royal Free Charity stand at the Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead 6 – 10 May 2026.

Seven of my paintings were selected for sale at the stand helping to support and raise funds for the charity’s vital work. The Royal Free is a major London hospital and also my local hospital. My son was born there and I appreciate the care that my family and friends have received at the Royal Free throughout my life so I am happy to support it whenever I can.

The Royal Free Charity raises funds for the hospital to provide essential services and equipment. It also makes a visit to the hospital a more joyful experience for patients, staff and visitors through the varied art exhibited throughout the buildings, including six of my own works which are on permanent display.

Works selected for the stand:

Homage to Matisse: watercolour on Fabriano paper, painted in my Brighton studio with my collaborator, photographer Michaela Meadow modelling. It references various Matisse motifs and paintings with which I have been in dialogue over the years, including my oil painting of Greta Prozor, “My Matisse” seen in images 2 & 3 and in the background of the watercolour painting. But it is also a portrait of Michaela and a dialogue between two contemporary women: Michaela modelled for me over many years in Brighton while also creating poetic photographs and artists books exploring the female body and her relationship with nature. So we found many common themes and in our conversations and sessions we questioned the relationship between model and painter, the differences between the male and female gaze, the naked and the nude.

Also exhibited and for sale: Michaela x6, Weaver of Tales, Floorlength Frankie, Simi Hills, Mist over the Aegean, Hallowe’en night, Hiroshima.

I was impressed by the variety and standard of the work in the Fair and with how international it was with galleries from South Korea, China, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Japan and different parts of the UK.

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This is just one example of the collaborative energy that our Brighton studio building contained and the quirky and magical encounters it spawned.

Three months before leaving our beloved New England House, fellow artists and studio neighbours Frankie and Mary invited me and a few others to an early morning drawing session in the Level 5 Ladies Loos. and Sara facilitated other artists to draw via Zoom. Frankie and Mary modelled for us accompanied by live music from harpist Sekinue. It had to be early to capture the fleeting moment when the mesmerising aquatic light slants in through the windows to create an enchanted chamber.

It’s a private semipublic space in New England House that many are unaware of or overlook; a space that becomes visionary in the early morning light that softens the walls and submerges us in colours that range through aqua, eau de nil, pistachio, duck egg blue & Tiffany turquoise. Level 5 is where my studio was, so this was my “local” Loo for 12 years. 

New England House: a functional Brutalist building housing so many stories. As we drew the sea nymphs Frankie and Mary in the soft dreamy light, we were surrounded by photos they had taken earlier and attached to the walls along with a collage of self portraits taken by me and other “visitors” to the Loos.

Afterwards we created an impromptu installation of our work and some of my drawings are featured here. 

“The nymphs are departed” wrote T.S. Eliot in “The Wasteland”.

Maybe. 

But our traces still linger there and in our memories.

(Images & Credits: photos & works on paper Rea Stavropoulos; Loo Break installation Mary Martin, Francesca Cluney & Fior Anderson)

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I am a supporter of “Art in hospitals” and greatly value the solace, delight and distraction that I have experienced as both patient and visitor in various hospitals where artworks are displayed. The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead has been my local hospital in London since I was a child and is where my son Marco was born. So it’s wonderful to now have six of my works selected for its permanent collection and so share my Art with patients, visitors and those who work in the hospital.
Five of the works are now hanging in various parts of the hospital. “Portrait of Monique” greets visitors as they come through the main entrance of the Royal Free on the Ground floor opposite the main reception.
My two oil paintings “Tree IV” and “Indian Dancers” are on the Lower Ground floor near the Restaurant and the two digital prints “Simi Hills” and “Clouds like islands in the sky” are just by the Chapel entrance.

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My “Kimolos” series of three paintings hanging in St. Ann’s eye clinic where I had my two cataract operations. Donated in grateful thanks.
Where would I be as a visual artist without my eyes and what would happen to my vision after the operations? Apprehension, fear, squeamishness predominated beforehand.
But now if i had a “third eye” I would get that done as well!
I shall be forever grateful to them all: for the tremendous skill of the surgeons, Sharmina, Priya and Matthew, both they and their team of anaesthetists and nurses were wonderful: friendly, patient.

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There are over one hundred units, at least 40 of them with people working in the arts and applied arts. I represented them in my Deputation speech to our Landlords, Brighton and Hove Council, at the Council meeting on 20 March 2025, where they were to decide about the future of the building.

I called it a “swansong” because we knew that ultimately we would have to vacate the building because of fire risks and the intention to refurbish, but I wanted the Council and the world at large to understand who we are, how we had been affected by the uncertainties of the previous five months, what we provide to the city and what it will lose, by dispersing us.

Thinking of my own experience and talking with fellow tenants, I realised that the climate of uncertainty regarding our tenure as tenants had “stifled our creativity and curbed our ambition” as self employed artists where our studios are central to our lives.

I said that we are the “lifeblood” of the city and its economy. 

I’ve been told that it’s had some effect on how the Council will deal with us, but we must wait and see.

Listen to my speech under “Video” and on YouTube

Meanwhile, I have bee interviewed by the local television

See some of the coverage in our local papers

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/25001595.around-100-
traders-forced-leave-new-england-house/
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/25025193.brighton-
new-england-house-tenants-must-leave-building/

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My Artist’s Calendar for 2025 published as a limited edition of 50 copies each signed and numbered by me. It features images taken from my artworks and a text that I have specially written, exploring ideas behind the works.

Copies of my calendar are regularly collected by art lovers in Europe, the United States, Japan and Australia.

Caught between earth and sky
We trace patterns
and tell stories
to fill the void
and find ourselves.

Greek myths have given us powerful figures that express emotions and act as catalysts for my imagination. They speak of human passion, inner and outer conflict and transformation, of forces beyond our control that somehow link us to the energy that drives the universe. They are timeless and continue to be relevant as Tony Harrison’s poem shows (August).
The images I have chosen oscillate between stillness and frenzy , light and dark, harmony and conflict.
The cover image is of Athena and Arachne, the mortal woman who dared to challenge the goddess to a weaving contest. Women caught and ensnared by powerful forces beyond their control, saved by being transformed into a star, a tree, a spider, the gods all around us, watching and waiting, in sea and sky and land…

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I shall have copies of my recently published book for sale as well as my limited edition calendar for 2025  “Myth & Metamorphosis”, plus artists’ books, cards, and artwork ranging from loose drawings to framed watercolours and oil paintings.

I’ve also got some small works currently on sale in the Burgh House shop in London.

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The British library in London has acquired all my artist’s books for the contemporary artist’s books collection, including my latest one “A Female Gaze: Stories of Passion & Perseverance” (100 signed and numbered copies) which I launched and talked about at  my “Women in Art” talk at Burgh House on 10th November.

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