Title: A Summer Place
Artist: Monique Sakellarios
Medium and Materials: Oil on canvas-wrapped Masonite board
Dimensions: 12" x 12"
A Summer Place offers buyers a serene escape into the quiet charm of a riverside European village on a bright summer afternoon. Warm, peaceful, and nostalgic, this painting draws the viewer into a leisurely countryside setting, where red-roofed cottages gather beside a glassy waterway beneath a broad, luminous sky.
Description
In A Summer Place, landscape impressionist Monique Sakellarios presents a highly collectible 12" x 12" square-format pastoral scene with strong visual balance and broad decorative appeal. The low horizontal ground plane gives the composition an open, spacious feeling, allowing the active summer sky to become a major source of light, atmosphere, and emotional pull.
The sky is built in soft layers of pale periwinkle, sky blue, and warm cream, with broad cross-hatched scumbling that gives the clouds movement and depth. Below, the viewer is positioned at the edge of a quiet river or canal, where long horizontal strokes of lavender-gray and pale peach create the impression of still water reflecting the village architecture above.
Along the left bank, a white-walled cottage with a warm terra-cotta roof anchors the scene beside a smaller rustic outbuilding. To the right, a long white structure guides the eye across the waterline, while olive trees, Italian cypresses, and distant violet-plum hills add depth and a sense of place. The result is an inviting European countryside retreat with the warmth, scale, and atmosphere collectors look for in a refined impressionist landscape.
Style and Composition
- Artistic style: French Impressionism with a contemporary plein-air sensibility, giving the piece both timeless appeal and fresh, livable energy.
- Composition: A low horizon within the square format creates an elegant balance between village, water, and sky. The cottage cluster on the left is visually balanced by a strong vertical tree form on the right, giving the painting a stable, harmonious presence on the wall.
- Focal point: The brightly lit white wall of the central cottage immediately draws the eye, standing out against the deep green foliage and distant violet hills.
- Color palette: Pale periwinkle blues, lavenders, and deep plums are balanced by warm terra-cotta reds, champagne creams, and rich olive greens, making the work versatile for both traditional and contemporary interiors.
- Lighting and atmosphere: Bright, diffused summer light filters through high clouds, bathing the village in a gentle glow and enhancing the painting’s calm, nostalgic, and highly approachable
Application and Technique
- Brushwork and mark-making: Loose, painterly, and Loaded impasto blocks define the cottage walls and roofs, while dry-brushed scumbling gives the sky a sense of motion and handmade surface character that rewards close viewing.
- Layering and depth: Temperature shifts and scale perspective create convincing spatial depth. The high-contrast white cottage and warm red roofs advance toward the viewer, while the low-contrast plum mountain ridges recede softly into atmospheric distance.
Tools and materials: Heavy-body oil paint on prepared canvas-grain Masonite board, applied with medium flat bristle brushes to build layered color and lasting surface texture. The rigid support enhances durability while preserving the tactile quality of the artist’s brushwork.
Inventory Status: Available for purchase online or in the gallery.
Shipping / Pickup: Shipping is available, with items securely packaged in professional archival materials, insured, and shipped globally; complimentary local pickup is also available at our 23 North Main Street gallery.
