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THE ARTIST

Maria Sarri-Belle was born in Chios and has been living in Athens for the last few years.

Her artistic concerns and love for painting, enchanted her from a very early age. She took lessons from a number of remarkable painters, such as Yannis Tsarouchis, Spyros Vassiliou, Dimitris Mytaras, Petros Zoumboulakis, Kirillos Veniadis, Alekos Fasianos and others. She attended courses at the Vakalo School and the School of Fine Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria.

She taught for twenty-three years at the Homeric Spiritual Centre of Chios and elsewhere. She has held dozens of solo exhibitions in Greece, Turkey, France, Italy, Canada, Australia.

Her works adorn airports and tourist offices in Europe, as well as the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Archdiocese of Athens, the Prime Minister's Office and many public and private places.

She has received recognition and awards both for her work in painting as well as in poetry.

Her work has been repeatedly featured in the media in Greece and abroad. She is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece and its representative for the North Aegean Islands.

Six of her fairytales have been published and performed on theatrical stages. "Always, I will always love you" is her most recent fairytale.

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Maria Sarri Belle

Awards

Painting Awards:

Gold medal for her contribution to art, by the International Society of Greek Writers and Artists at the 2nd Spiritual Olympiad |1999.

1st prize ‘’Oscar 2000'’ from the Accademia Ferdinandea in Catania Italy.

1st prize and gold medal in a competition at the Panathenaea 2000 event on the theme '’Personalities of the century'’.

Prize from the European Cultural Delphi Center, for her works in painting and poetry | 2000.

Poetry Awards:

Award from the Committee of Literates ''Goddess Minerva'', at the Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Athens, for her poetic work at the ''15th Poets' Festival'' | 2000

Prize at the International Poetry Competition in Johannesburg, Africa | 2001

1st Prize Giovanni Gronhi at the 14th International Poetry-Painting Competition at the Accademia Pontedera in Pisa | 2000.

Expert Reviews

There are painters who paint exclusively with their mind, but there are others who paint only with the fervent material of their soul. That is to say, those who prioritize emotion in every choice they make. And that has its risks. Maria Sarri-Belle from the fragrant island of Chios, with its immense history, belongs to the latter. She has traveled the globe, reaching as far as Australia, exhibiting and teaching painting. Albert Camus often said that it is impossible to perceive, to understand something, unless you have first felt it with all your strength... The Orthodox Fathers put it differently:

"The mind dries things up. The heart refreshes them..."

Maria possesses a passion and an unprecedented strength in everything she does. Far from recipes or schools, she follows her color instincts, which often results in explosive outcomes. She does not aim for her painting to capture the image of the world but to convey its secret energy. And if possible, to explain its mysteries... In other words, she does not wish to function as a photographer of this world but rather as an x-ray of it.

This is what she strives to do with her series of paintings, sometimes through an explosion of colors and contrasts, sometimes with the tender suggestion of a pictorial detail, sometimes by focusing more on the subject and its faithful depiction, and sometimes by playing mainly with form, the impasto brushstroke, and the abstract, free play of writing.

Maria Sarri-Belle knows how to combine decorative motifs with something more substantial, which is the essence of true art. With the deposit of her soul in all of her works, large or small she shares the depth of her soul. Because in her paintings, sometimes intensely colorful and sometimes with an evocative undertone, she not only shares experiences of her personal life but also those secret images hidden deep in her subconscious. May Maria's secrets be understood by everyone.

Manos Stefanidis - Art Historian