Paxos
— — olive shadow on a cliff above blue water.
Not only on a wall.
“A small Ionian island about seven nautical miles south of Corfu, ringed with sea caves on the west and three quiet harbours on the east. Gaios in the south, Loggos in the middle, Lakka at the north end. Olive groves carry the interior; some of the trees were planted under the Venetians. Boats from Antipaxos run all summer. — from the studio
Paxos, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Paxos, or Paxoi in Greek, is the smallest of the seven main Ionian Islands, covering about 30 square kilometres and lying roughly twelve kilometres south of Corfu. The permanent population sits near 2,300, weighted toward the southern town of Gaios, the island's administrative seat and main port. Two smaller harbours, Loggos and Lakka, hold the middle and the north. Paxos and its southern neighbour Antipaxos make up the municipality of Paxoi within the Ionian Islands region. Ferries reach the island from Corfu, Igoumenitsa and Parga on the mainland.
The west coast of Paxos is a sequence of white limestone cliffs and sea caves cut by the open Ionian. The largest are Ortholithos, Ypapanti and the Blue Caves, reached by small boat from Gaios or Lakka. The water reads as deep blue or pale turquoise depending on the angle of light, an effect of the clean limestone seabed and the absence of river silt around the island. Antipaxos, two nautical miles south, holds Voutoumi and Vrika, two beaches that draw day-boats from Corfu through the summer.
Paxos is shaped by its olive trees. The island holds an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 olive trees, many of them planted under Venetian rule between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries when Venice required the islands to produce oil for the Republic. The groves give the interior its silver-grey light and its deep shade in summer. Stone-built oil mills survive across the island, several converted to small museums or restaurants. The harvest runs roughly November through January, when the island quiets and the work shifts inland.