Diamantis Stagidis

official site:
I was born in 1959 in Prosotsani, near Drama,
a city of northern Greece.

I dealt with painting during my childhood, as all children used to.
In the age of 15 i started to test myself in canvasses using real
paintbrushes without any guidance.

In my thought had been nailed that or i would discover alone what
was taught in the schools of art, so i had not had anything to lose
or i would discover something else different from what was taught
in the schools of arts, therefore still better, i would be the original.

For this reason, i do not consider myself self -taught but self educated.
I assume that Dali, Caravaggio and Rembrand are my teachers.

So, i have not studied in any school of art. I have studied forestry
in the university. I work as a forester in the ministry of agriculture
to earn my living.

Up to the age of 25 i used to copy the classic painters in order to
learn how to paint. I had been provided with books of art which i
studied continuously.

The first exhibitions of my paintings had been taken place during
the local cultural events. That period i was influenced by dali and
magritte. I created my first compositions with symbolism. I could
copy Dali with great precision.

In 1987 i was moved in Kavala, one of the most important cities of
northern greece. So,here in Kavala, i started to prepare my first
individual exhibition of my first attempts on abstruct compositions.
That was in 1989 but the results were very disappointing against my
expectations.

I painted rarely for the next eight years but i studied a lot about
the theory and history of art.

Also, i continued to search for my personal style. Henceforth i can
paint as impressionist, surrealist, as realist too, however, i am
still dissatisfied with my style.

Again i think the schools of art are useless. My opinion is that painting
is not a theory, it is not a science either . Painting is sentiment
and it is not taught.

In 2000, with the change of the century, i drew a separative line.

Felling lost, i decided to follow the basic instructions of experienced
wayfarers who consult that, as soon as you feel that you have been
lost, the wisest action is to follow your footsteps backwards until
you find yourself in known places.

Thus therefore, i started to travel back to the constant values of
the grandmasters. I studied deeply the work of Leonardo Da Vinci,
Michaelangelo, Caravaggio, Paulo Uccelo, Piero de la Francesca, attempting
to captivate the ineffable merit of the work of the big figures of
art. I was trying to arrest the quintessence of painting.

The station of this route is my painting "
did Rembrand knows Altamira ? Looking at this painting, someone could
see the " "night patrol" of rembrand painted on a rock
surface of a cave, someone else could see an abstract painting with
many colors here and there that luckily resulted in that classic piece
of art (as, according to the theory of chaos, a chimpanzee pressing
randomly the keyboard of a typewriter has the possibility to write
Shakespeare ) some other could see a detrited cave painting of Altamira,
which when rembrand faced it with its mat colors, he painted his classical
work.

I was puzzled for months why the "night patrol" was so perfect
piece of artwork? It was not, of course, because Rembrand painted
nicely 20 - 30 people. But because of the perfect lines, colors, excellent
light, everything on it was wisely painted in a perfect way with the
right quantities in the space.

The magic of it is not the expressions in the persons' faces neither
the colored clothes. It is something behind all these. It is that
cannot be said, the ineffability. The edge between the remembrance
and oblivion, as that has been said.