By arts editor Helen Musa

Artist Michael Winters, a kind of “wandering Greek” who surfaces in various parts of the globe with his exhibitions, has written to us about his latest Greek adventure on Leros.

He is certainly the only Canberra artist who can claim honorary citizenship of the island where he spent many of his formative years as an artist – living, working and even raising his children there for a time.

Although he is justly famous for his confronting Cretan works, exhibited at the Australian War Memorial some years ago, the peripatetic artist is especially associated with the Greek island of Leros in the Dodecanese Archipelago. He has been a citizen there since 1995, when the Leros Municipal Council conferred the honour on him.

He writes: “This visit has been like no other – creative interactions, donating 29 of my linocuts of Leros to the island’s council to remain as some sort of creative legacy of my many years spent on the island.”

Much of his time, he reports, has been spent interacting with the island’s kids through the visual arts program of the local cultural group, Artemis.

The group’s organiser used photos of a mural he painted on Leros in 1984 as a starting point for the children to produce drawings in response.

At the local primary school, Winters brought in 10 of his linocuts of Leros and placed them in a semicircle so that each class could interact with the works. 

Questions from the children included, “How did you get to Leros?”, “What is a linocut?” and “Have you ever drawn a cat or a dog?” – “a wonderful moment,” he says.

The climax, he reports, was an exhibition of his Leros linocuts made over many years. 

“A large crowd turned up and this was a highlight of my many years spent on the island.”

Winters will be back in Canberra soon to resume his busy life as an artist and mentor to ACT artists.