Fallen painter part of Greece’s ‘new homeless’
Athens – Leon is proud to be a professional hagiographer, in the original Greek sense of the word.
The British-trained artist paints icons of saints (‘‘hagios’’) for private clients to give away as wedding or christening gifts. He once earned 170,000 (NZ$267,000) in a year.
Now he is painting from his bottom bunk at an Athens shelter for the homeless after his business collapsed because of the economic crisis. ‘‘Let’s say I was rich,’’ he said. ‘‘Not stinking rich, but rich.’’
Leon, 64, who asked to use only his first name because he does not want friends to learn of his plight, has painted more than 2000 icons in his life.
Born to a Greek family in Istanbul, he was sent to stay with
‘‘Let’s say I was rich. Not stinking rich, but rich.’’ Leon
an aunt in Eastcote, northwest London, as a teenager and took art classes in Harrow. He became a professional artist in middle age after embarking on various careers, including travelling the world working for a travel agency.
He decided to strike out on his own at the age of 47. ‘‘I am a practical man. I said, ‘What sells? Icons’. That is what to do.’’
He soon made his name as an icon painter in the austere Byzantine style and the orders flowed in. His best year was 1999, when he earned the equivalent of 170,000 from 160 icons. When the global economic crisis hit in 2008, his business all but dried up.
‘‘From January to August 2008, my total revenue from icon painting was 700,’’ he said.
‘‘People were psychologically afraid and scared of what would happen to their cash.’’
Divorced twice, Leon was renting a studio and living alone in a flat, but fell behind on his rent.
Owing 10,000, he agreed to move out on September 30.
After sleeping in parks and in churchyards, his son found him a place at an Athens shelter run by the Klimaka charity.
He admits that he is waiting to become 65, when he will get his pension and be able to rent his own flat.
A charity official, Olga Theodorikakou, said Leon was the new face of homelessness in Greece.
‘‘Already, with a 25 per cent increase in the number of homeless in Greece in the past two years, we are seeing a different profile of people,’’ she said.
‘‘These are the ‘ new homeless’ – people with a higher level of education and from a middle standard of living who are out on the streets just because they lost their jobs.
‘‘They do not have any other problems, unlike the traditional homeless who have psychiatric problems or drug problems. They could be me.’’