Jan Abels, living in Amsterdam, has visited Athos already unumerable times. Mostly he is invited by the Holy Monastery of Simonas Petras, where he is involved as an architect in the maintenance of the buildings.
Apart from being an architect, the former secretary of the society of Orthodox people in The Netherlands (the ‘Vereniging van Orthodoxen H. Nikolaas van Myra’) and singer in a Orthodox churchchoir, he is also a gifted sketcher and painter. His sketches in black ink are well know within the circle of Athos-pilgrims, but he also created water-colour paintings on the spot on Agion Oros. Below a short selection of these paintings. From top to bottom: (1) the inside of the chapel on top of Mount Athos, (2) the Holy Cross on top of Mount Athos, (3) the main church of the Skiti of Prodromou, (4) the interior of the same church, and (5) the inside of the Ag. Demitrios, Thessaloniki. The paintings date from 1996.





Hans Overduin