Signature
Over her 52-year journey as an artist, Maria Sarri Belle has cultivated unique techniques that combine tradition with innovation, earning recognition for her ability to transform familiar motifs into modern visual art.
From the intricate designs of Byzantillism, inspired by Byzantine aesthetics and Pointillism, to the symbolic vibrancy of The Cord, and the yet-to-be-revealed artistry of Rock Art, each technique reflects her passion for weaving cultural heritage into contemporary expression.
Registered with the Greek Chamber of Visual Arts, Maria's work stands as a testament to her creativity and dedication to pushing the boundaries of artistic form.
Byzantillism
Since I was still a schoolgirl, I liked to draw on my notebooks and books with a pencil in this way.
After many years I rediscovered those books and I started to paint some artworks, but this time I thought I would add colors, more gold, copper, and silver.
I wanted them to have something of Byzantium something of oriental designs, a little bit of mosaics, a taste of the pebbled courtyards of Kampos in Chios I believe that with the dots it had something of pointillism and also elements of our folk tradition.
I wanted them to resemble embroidery (since I was painting them with needles in many patterns), all tied together with a continuous movement.
I can proudly say that it is a special art form, between decorative and modern visual elements and abstract symbolism. Something very much my own, one that I have loved to paint since I was a child; so I had to give it a name.
That's how "Byzantillsm" was born.
the cord
The red thread tied to the wind wrapped on the spinning wheel, our grandmothers used to say.
Instead of threading to embroider the root stitch, which I knew from a young age, I spun the ball of paste and colors.
So I managed a beautiful, original, interesting, very tedious style with a unique result. It looks, like embroidery, where you have vivid colors and which flows like gurgling water on the canvas.
I love to find ways to tie tradition to today.
ROCK ART
I chose my unique rock art from among hundreds of stones. Or did they choose me, wishing to stand out and come out of obscurity?
I spent hours trying to decipher and learn the unsealed secrets kept for centuries.
I never changed their fantastic colors and relief, which were carved by wind, rain, sea, and lava for centuries in their passage. They were like magnificent Caryatides, carved not by the hands of Phidias but by nature itself. I painted them only where they guided me, by their relief and my imagination without interfering with their shape.
The colors I painted them with, most of it was also from nature. Sometimes from soil or mud sometimes from flower pollen but also dust from colorful quartz , which brings good luck. I also took color from the heart of the trees. I mixed gold leaves with mastic oil.
So each one had its own story to reveal to me.