Mythical creatures on the beach 1971

Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas made this oil painting, Mythical Creatures on the Beach, with an earthy palette and a dreamlike approach. It feels like he built up the image through layers of intuitive marks. Look at the textures, the way the paint seems almost sculpted in places. He’s not trying to hide the process, instead, he’s letting the physicality of the medium speak. See how the forms emerge from the ground, how the colors blend, and how the figures seem to both exist and dissolve into the landscape? The blues and browns pull you in, and the way he layers the paint gives it a certain weight. It's like looking at a memory, blurred and shifting. Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas’ work always had this sense of classical themes seen through a modern eye. Think about Giorgio de Chirico's surreal, dreamlike landscapes. But ultimately, this painting is its own thing: an invitation to dive into the mythic, to wander on the beach of imagination.