How to make the most of your landscape painting workshop
What is landscape painting? Landscape painting is one of the oldest and most cherished traditions in the visual arts. The term refers to artwork that depicts outdoor scenery such as…
Blog Archives
Reverse benchmarking points the way ahead
Benchmark, Carlisle Cathedral by Adrian Taylor, CC BY-SA 2.0 . Detail. <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Don’t copy – innovate When I hear the word benchmark, I immediately think…
Why going solo on a knitting retreat might be the best gift you give yourself
A knitting retreat in Italy may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of travelling solo, but it has quietly become one of the most…
‘Life itself stirring vigorously in the stone’
Celebrating Italian artists who inspired Watermill bedroom names: 4: Donatello The Watermill’s bedrooms are named after famous Italian artists* and we thought it would be fun to tell you more…
Si monumentum requiris, circumspice*
Celebrating Italian artists who inspired Watermill bedroom names: 3: Brunelleschi The Watermill’s bedrooms are named after famous Italian artists* and we thought it would be fun to tell you more about…
“We are rich and in charge, and if our clothes break the sumptuary laws, so what?”
The Watermill’s bedrooms are named after famous Italian artists* and we thought it would be fun to tell you more about them in a series of short articles. We’ll also…
Celebrating Italian artists who inspired Watermill bedroom names: 1 Botticelli
The Watermill’s bedrooms are named after famous Italian artists* and we thought it would be fun to tell you more about them in a series of short articles. We’ll also…
Rosa Genoni: a pioneer of Italian fashion inspired by Botticelli
…Armani, Cavalli, Fendi, Gabbana (and Dolce), Valentino, Gucci, Prada, Versace, Schiaparelli… today, when the names of Italian fashion designers slip easily off the tongue, it’s difficult to recall that there…
Looking down occasionally can be truly amazing
When entering the Duomo, the cathedral of Santa Maria Fiore in Florence, the natural tendency is to look up, into the soaring space of the dome, the capolavoro of my…
Inspiring thoughts from an Indian holiday and from a Watermill guest
Lois and I were very moved by an email this week from Mary Jane Colley, a guest on a Watermill creative course last year, full of thoughtful insights about…
Michelangelo’s Tuscany: Artistic Inspiration for Your Painting Holiday
Why does Michelangelo’s Moses have horns? Similarly, why do the four evangelists not mention an ox and a donkey in the Bible, even though Nativity scenes show them? These…
ChatGPT versus the artist’s mind. Can AI be truly creative?
We ‘creative types’ have been struggling for some time now to assess the impact of Artificial Intelligence on our creativity – and our livelihoods. These new AI programs not only…