UK artist and photographer Tee Chandler came to spend spring at the residency. Along with some experimental visual art she took the following rather haunting photos.  

Note. The photos of the residency house were taken before it was recently painted. 

Mathew did this interview last winter. Its more about the city residency but it also mentions the village one. 

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-side-woo-episode-9-how-to-create-a-residency/id1596150841?i=1000544402810

You might need to copy past the link. 

San Francisco sculptor Michelle came to Crete to get inspired by nature and Cretan lifestyle. While staying in the village she created three mosaics. One is on a fountain on the central square. THANK YOU MICHELLE!!! 

​PS. Michelle hopes to come back soon and we might make a larger community mosaic. 

Because of travel restrictions around the Corona virus the residency has not had many artists stay since late 2019. Bookings are very slow in 2021. Please if you would like to share the website with artists who you think would enjoy this lovely place. Please share the website. Mathew

​Note. Things are looking much better for 2022. The residency has been booking out with some availability from September onwards.  29/10/2021.

www.photosofcrete.com/post/ano-asites-cultural-cretan-village?fbclid=IwAR3o6IYSx1w6g98QMjjSS2XYoFnxuTgN7b4Gkn7LEeRvJTR5ptkZbDTgcJ0www.photosofcrete.com/post/ano-asites-cultural-cretan-village?fbclid=IwAR3o6IYSx1w6g98QMjjSS2XYoFnxuTgN7b4Gkn7LEeRvJTR5ptkZbDTgcJ0​www.photosofcrete.com/post/ano-asites-cultural-cretan-village?fbclid=IwAR3o6IYSx1w6g98QMjjSS2XYoFnxuTgN7b4Gkn7LEeRvJTR5ptkZbDTgcJ0

Each summer in the village we repaint fading houses with traditional lime washes. Last week we had a full weekend of painting, and many new ones were coloured. The main project was to paint a narrow old passageway bright blue. As the paint is a lime wash, it lets the old stone walls breath, and will wash away with rain over time. 

Recently an old house was perched in the village. Normally the old houses contain furniture from the past. This one did not, BUT inside there were two huge bags of unpainted gourds. (Sought of a pumpkin) As a project to liven up parts of the village that have been abandoned, we painted twelve with a fruit theme. They will hang on a street that needs some love. Yes its not 'art', but painting gourds in Greece has been done as decoration for many years. So we continue that tradition. The project has proven popular, so we will grow some fresh ones. It would be interesting to make some kind of conceptual project in the future.

​https://greekherald.com.au/post/meet-mathew-halpin-the-australian-whose-art-breathes-new-life-into-abandoned-neighbourhoods-on-crete/?fbclid=IwAR3Wwr-3uIWjxdFwqdhIt3kuTLDBjrOWLXKQruWirc4CCPwZMZfIzcYFcw0

During the corona virus problem, the murals project in the village had to be put on hold. Many locals were sad to see nothing happening. So organiser of the project Mathew Halpin painted a new mural on the main street. The reaction was wonderful. We hope that in the near future the project can start back up as normal. 

Getting the house ready to host artists has been a lot of work. Finally the interior will be finished before April 2020. The hardest room by far has been the one pictured.  It was originally a room where sheep lived. Plus it had a huge bread oven, which sadly was not possible to save. Digging out a layer of cement, that was not letting the old stone walls breath, was lots of work. The cement mortar will be replaced with Hydraulic lime. A much more healthy option. In a couple of weeks that part of the house will get a new terracotta roof, and windows and doors. There will be a staircase going up the the bedroom.