Dear Friend,

A double century. Wow! And thank you!

We have never had so many early bookings for our creative courses. As we go to press at the end of November, more than 200 people have already booked for our 2019 courses. And we only have 40 to 50 places remaining.

So mille grazie to all of you who have supported our activities and signed up for another of our fun-filled, sun-filled, inspiring weeks. We are very grateful that you enjoy what we do. Without being too pompous, we feel we’re in the happiness business and the happier our guests are, the happier we are.

The Watermill façade facing the river:
time for refurbishment

We are working during our ‘closed season’ to make the ambience of the Watermill even more inviting. Our big project is to renovate the roofs of the 19th century mill beside the river and to install photovoltaic panels there to make us self-sufficient in electricity. We shall also be repointing the riverside façade and plastering the brickwork of the studio (and then painting it in the Watermill’s trademark sunny mustard colour). It’s going to look splendid!

The Watermill communal sitting room:
changes afoot (literally)

We’ve also plans to enhance the ambience of our communal dining room and sitting room, but you will have to come and visit us to see for yourself what we’ve done.

And you will have to hurry to bag a place. It’s an especially good time to book, since we have an enticing Early Bird offer: we’ll give you £75 GBP off the cost of your 2019 creative course if you book before the end of this year.

You can find out more on the Watermill website, which gives full details of all our 2019 courses and of the exciting and inspiring tutors who will be taking them. Please just click here.

The big news as far as creative courses are concerned is that we have opened a special Scriptwriting course with Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, ‘Living Legends of Comedy’ according to the British Comedy Society. Laurence and Maurice have agreed to set aside a week from their busy schedule to host a unique course where aspiring writers of TV, film and radio scripts can learn the techniques of the trade from the very best. There are more details of this course below.

(The pictures above and below show details from the winning photographs in the Watermill Photographic Competition. You can see the photos in full in the story below.)

In this month’s newsletter there are also stories on:

• Peonies and the Forbidden City
• Our neighbourhood from another point of view
• Mike Willdridge is well on the road to abstraction
• A gossipy village by Varvara Neiman
• A knitting week ‘out of time’
• Living Legends will run a Watermill scriptwriting course
• Why ‘grace notes’ are important in Italian

Happy reading...

You might have told me earlier
that the Watermill people
take care of all our transportation

Bring a partner: there’s plenty for them to do

Why not bring your friend or partner? They don’t have to participate in the course, but they will be able to enjoy the wonderful hospitality of the mill and, whenever they want, to come out with you to our beautiful locations. We also offer a range of Alternative activities for partners on all our courses, as well as a generous £GBP 250 discount if they share a room with you.

Watermill Photo Competition: the winners

Many thanks to all the people who entered the Watermill Photographic Competition. The quality of the entries was very high indeed and our four judges, painting tutors Sandra Strohschein, Maggie Renner Hellman, Tim Wilmot and Mike Willdridge, had a hard time deciding on the winning entry and the four runners-up. But after some deliberation, they decided on the winning photograph above. It is by Val Joplin and the judges felt it perfectly summed up the ethos of the Watermill painting holiday: a wonderful view and a blank sheet of paper just waiting for inspiration.

Our judges chose four runners-up pictures This one, (Above Left) by Lani Chaves, is a sparkling view through the arch in the village of Verrucola, our Monday location on painting holidays and this one, (Above Right) by Steve Harger, is of a group of our painting guests sitting in the shade in the Watermill courtyard. The judges liked the chiaroscuro, the interplay of light and shade.

And here (Above Left) is Jules Foster’s evocation of a knitting course, with the wonderful countryside surrounding the Watermill in the background and the final runner-up, (Above Right) Kathie George’s picture of a painter on the mediaeval walls of the nearby town of Fivizzano, looking down the valley of the river Rosaro towards the village of Posara.

We hope you enjoyed the photographs and our thanks again to everyone who entered. To view all of the winning photographs and a collection of runners-up's photographs, please visit our Photographic Competition - Winners Page

Beijing’s Forbidden City inspires Jude’s romantic watercolour

This gentle watercolour of peonies bursting from a jug is by our Australian Watermill painting tutor Jude Scott, who will be joining us for two inspiring weeks next year. Her painting has just been selected for the 3rd Biennale of the International Watercolour Society of Vietnam next April. Many congratulations to Jude, who tells us: “I’m so happy. It will be on my demonstration list for the Watermill when I join you next August.”

The painting already has an Italian connection: it is painted, in transparent watercolour, on Fabriano paper, made just south of us in the Marche area.

Jude says that in Perth, Western Australia, where she lives, the climate is not conducive to growing peonies. But when she was invited to paint for a week at a university in Beijing, she took a trip to the Forbidden City.

She says: “In one of the ancient gardens, there they were, en masse. Fabulous! I was so excited to see them for the first time and painting them was an exciting challenge.”

We do grow peonies at the Watermill, among the plethora of flowers and shrubs tended lovingly by our gardener Flavio Terenzoni, but they’re not entirely successful. You will, however, find many other flowers to paint, as well as the unspoiled scenery surrounding the Watermill – and castles and convents and ancient villages dozing in the sunshine...

Jude will be joining us for two weeks next summer, teaching in watercolours (& acrylics and oils) from Saturday 17 August to Saturday 24 August 2019 and from Saturday 24 August to Saturday 31 August 2019. Her second week has one place left, but we do have more places on the first week.

Looks familiar, from a different point of view

Watermill painting course guest Robert Christopher recently sent us some more of his delightful pen and watercolour sketches made during his stay with us this year. Bob has a great habit of looking at familiar things from unfamiliar angles.

The picture on the right is of a quiet corner in the mediaeval walled town of Fivizzano where our painting groups go on market day on Tuesdays.

We have lots of wonderful paintings and sketches of the market itself, from both our tutors and their students. But Bob took a few paces away from the main square and descended a few steps to produce this lovely sketch.

Here’s below left is another of his pictures looking at familiar scene from a slightly different angle and perhaps more conventional, but no less charming, below right is a study of the recently restored 17th-century watermill.

We made a little Facebook slideshow of Bob’s sketches, which you can see by clicking here.

Robert is returning to the mill for Charles Sluga’s painting course next October and if you’d like to join him and enjoy the gardens and grounds of the Watermill, the sleepy towns and villages of our area, as well as the unspoiled grandeur of our scenery, we’d love to welcome you here.

We already have eight bookings on Charles’s course, one of whom is a non-painting partner, so we have room for four more painters (and their non-painting partners if they would like to come). You can find out more about Charles’s course by clicking here.

Mike is well on the way to abstraction

Our friend and enthusiastic Watermill painting tutor Mike Willdridge is well on the way to completing his self-imposed task of producing 100 paintings in 100 days. He’s in the 70s now.

Mike says: “For a long time I’ve enjoyed looking at abstract art and wanted to move in that direction myself, but I found it difficult to leave my representational style. Now that I have given up most of my teaching (except at the Watermill!), I’ve found a renewed energy towards abstraction.”

The artistic road has been an exciting one and we been looking at Mike’s wonderful pictures on his Facebook page (Mike Willdridge), on Instagram (@mikewilldridge) and on his website (www.mikewilldridge-artist.com)

We’ve been enjoying Mike’s journey every day and we liked some of his pictures so much that we have bought four of them. You can see them if you join us for one of our creative courses next year. And if you come in early June, you will be able to meet the artist himself. You don’t have to go abstract to enjoy Mike’s course: he is a wonderful tutor and paints realistic landscapes and sketching your surroundings. He will be with us again next year, for a week in watercolour and drawing (also gouache and acrylics), from Saturday 29 June to Saturday 6 July 2019. We already have eight bookings on Mike’s course, so we have room for three or four more painters and their non-painting partners, if they would like to come.

A sketch of the market
in Fivizzano
by Mike Willdridge

Mike Willdridge works and in a wide range of media and is an enthusiastic and energetic tutor, often encouraging his students to be bold and to take chances. His classes are always light-hearted and fun, with the ‘teaching’ tailored to individual needs. He will concentrate on watercolours, but is also happy to help with gouache and acrylics too.

A comment from a guest on one of Mike’s previous courses at The Watermill: “A wonderful holiday. You were such generous and friendly hosts and Mike was an excellent painting tutor.”  Another said: “The food was exceptional and the mill itself is great, in such a beautiful setting. A truly wonderful week in every respect.”

Be an early bird!

Don’t forget our enticing Early Bird offer: if you book any one of our fun-filled, sun-filled, inspiring holidays before 31 December 2018 there is a £75 GBP (about $100) discount. What are you waiting for? Come and join us!