Dear Friend,

July was a funny old month.

A funny old month because the Watermill has never looked smarter, the gardens are blooming more colourfully than ever, the River Rosaro, fresh from the mountains and tumbling through the National Park that surrounds the Watermill, is clear and cool. The cicadas noisily buckle their ribs, the lizards and the geckos sun themselves on terraces and walls, the birds sound warning cries as we walk through the stippled sunlight of the bamboozery. ‘God is in his heaven – and all is right with the world,’ as Robert Browning would have it.

But there was only us to enjoy it. A few friends popped in from time to time, but by and large, only a few pairs of eyes enjoyed this beauty and tranquillity. We are missing you and we hope we will soon be seeing some Watermill guests on one of our creative courses, to enjoy all this with us. Yes it has been a funny old month.

We now have just two painting courses remaining for our 2020 creative courses programme: a week at the end of August/beginning of September with Mike Willdridge and another, with Tim Wilmot, in the middle of October. We still have a few places left on these courses and would be delighted if you would like to celebrate your freedom from lockdown and once again enjoy the delights of la bella vita Italiana. Details, as usual, below.

But now we are concentrating on 2021 and we already have a wonderful programme of creative courses lined up. And, because we had to postpone so many courses from 2020 we already have more than 150 bookings from people keen to join us next year.

Many of our regular tutors will be with us again, and we have some exciting and inspiring new tutors too. So, whether you’re metier is painting, creative writing, knitting or learning more of the wonderful Italian language, the Watermill is the place to be. Cast off your coronavirus blues and get your booking in now! We can’t wait to welcome you here.

Mike Willdridge captures the bubbling millstream and Tim Wilmot brings a nearby vineyard to life

But, as well as trying to persuade a few more of you to come on Mike or Tim’s courses this year, we are really concentrating our efforts now on 2021. So, a little earlier than usual, we have launched our 2021 Watermill creative courses website, so you can choose just when you would like to come and with whom next year. Please just click here to see our new website and to be inspired.

As usual, we have an exciting mixture of old and trusted tutors, together with some inspiring new ones. Our new tutors are a truly international team: Mary Padgett from the USA; Carl March from the UK; Grahame Booth from Ireland; Caroline Deeble from Australia; Randy Hale from the USA; Milind Mulick from India; Brienne Brown from the USA; Ali Hargreaves from the UK. We will be introducing them individually in upcoming newsletters and in our daily blogs, which you can see by clicking here.

An atmospheric watercolour
of the Watermill vine verandah,
by Keiko Tanabe

Our returning painting tutors and friends are: Keiko Tanabe from Japan/USA; Sandra Strohschein from the USA; Paul Talbot-Greaves from the UK; Rebecca de Mendonça from the UK; Vicki Norman from the UK; Sue Ford from the UK; Mike Willdridge from the UK; Charles Sluga from Australia; Tim Wilmot from the UK.

Our writing tutors are old friends, too: Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran will be presenting their unique Scriptwriting course, while Jo Parfitt will be here for another of her world-renowned Writing Your Life Stories. Again, there will be more about these wonderful tutors as the weeks and months progress.

our two exciting new knitting tutors,
Norah and Louisa

We have two exciting new knitting tutors, too: Norah Gaughan from the USA, and Louisa Harding, from the UK. There is more about that, and about our Knitting Retreat, later in this newsletter.

And, last but by no means least, we are delighted to welcome back our old friend and language tutor, Francesca La Sala, for another of her unique Italian Language weeks.

Come and enjoy inspiring tuition, a beautiful setting, warm hospitality, delicious food and the convivial company of like-minded people. Oh! And enjoy our sunsets...

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

• Fivizzano keeps the flags flying
• Coronavirus sanity? Lost in translation!
• An illusion of reality
• Keeping you even safer
• Feroze hangs out the washing, again
• Cool and Green
• Our free, interactive, online painting sessions go from strength to strength
• Our two remaining painting courses in 2020
• Our inspiring 2021 painting tutors
• Two exciting new knitting tutors for 2021 – and a convivial retreat
• Our outstanding creative writing courses in 2021
• Learn Italian from the Italians in 2021

Happy reading....

You will be amazed at what a week
at the Watermill
can do for your superpowers.

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

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.

Fivizzano keeps the flags flying

A couple of weeks ago we were having supper with friends in the Elvetico café in the floodlit Piazza Medicea in the nearby walled town of Fivizzano, when loud drumming announced the arrival of men in tights (and girls elegant in long medieval dresses, too.)

The coronavirus pandemic, and the reactions of government and public to it, has played havoc with our normal celebrations of Fivizzano’s history, such as our annual archery competition where the quarters of the town compete to see who has the most accurate arrows. But the club which proudly re-enacts our ancient splendours seems determined not to be subdued. Hence the tights, the drums – and, most spectacular of all, the flags.

Fivizzano, like many ancient Italian towns, has a centuries-old tradition of spectacular flag-waving and flag-throwing and eight or so young men of the town joined the drummers and the girls, to give us an unexpected show. Lois captured some of them a-whirling and a-twirling, proof that the human spirit cannot be subdued.

Coronavirus sanity? Lost in translation!

On a less high-flying, uplifting note, life is very much returning to normal, but we are still very good in observing social distancing (difficult for Italians whose natural instinct is to hug and kiss whenever possible) and wearing our masks in the street and when ordering in café’s bars and restaurants.

Most establishments also have little bottles of sanitising gel to spray on your hands.

Left you can see one such in our local ice cream shop/pastry shop/café/bar, the Ricci in Fivizzano, where we frequently go for an aperitivo. Apparently, if you clean your hands, you will become sane.

Doesn’t seem to be working with Bill, though!

An illusion of reality

Bill is, rather slowly, writing a new detective story set in Renaissance Florence, called The Illusion of Reality, where nothing is quite as it seems. So he enjoyed this spectacular photograph, recently published by Musei Italiani, of the ceiling of the church of Saint Ignatius in Rome, painted by Andrea Pozzo in the 17th century.

It is an outstanding example of trompe l’oeil painting known in Italian as di sotto in sù’, from below, upwards’, using the techniques of painting perspective and foreshortening, to create the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. In other words, nothing is quite as it seems: it is an illusion of reality.

Picture: Citta di Mantova

Andrea’s painting is a celebration of the splendour of high Baroque, but our favourite di sotto in sù paintings comes from a little earlier, Andrea Mantegna’s ceiling in the Camera degli Sposi in the ducal Palace in Mantova, not least because it is a technical masterpiece, but also because it is such fun.

Can you see those laughing servants peering over the balustrade, ready to tumble a tub of flowers on our heads? And look at those chubby naked putti clinging on, sticking out all sorts of body parts, poised for mischief.

Keeping you even safer

At the Watermill at Posara our aim is to look after you. And that doesn’t mean just providing inspiring tuition, warm hospitality, delicious food and wine, but making sure that you are safe well. As well as the extremely high standards of hygiene normally practised by the Watermill, we will also be taking additional precautionary measures.

Our ‘ultimate hygiene’ program includes:

• doorknobs and drawer handles etc, in the public spaces, will be sanitised every morning and evening
• all cleaning and catering staff will wear protective gloves during their work
• all crockery and cutlery will be sterilised after every meal, also our mugs and glasses after every cup of tea or drink
• dispensers supplying sanitising gel will be available in the communal kitchen, and outside the guests’ dining room. Sanitising gel will also be available in your rooms
• disposable gloves will be provided whenever you need them
• there will be certification from an independent analyst, including microbial testing, that our safety precautions in the kitchen more than meet stringent guidelines on how to prevent infection by the coronavirus.

Plenty of space for all at a local hilltop restaurant

We will make sure that, if it is still necessary, you will be able to observe social distancing. If this is still required:

• our minibuses will only take four passengers at a time, instead of the usual eight
• in the studio you will be able to sit at least 1.8m away from every other person.
• we will modify our itinerary so that you can eat safely at every meal. For meals at the Watermill, you will spread out to eat at tables in the dining room, the vine verandah, and the courtyard, or there will be two sittings. We will only visit local restaurants where there is adequate space for social distancing.

Feroze hangs out the washing, again

As you know we are always pleased with our former guests send us pictures that they have painted recently to remind of the times during their week-long courses with us. The latest comes from Dr Feroze Antia, who has been on painting holidays at the Watermill no less than four times and who added this charming note: “I know I haven’t been to the Watermill for quite a few years but I do think of you guys and have recommended a few tutors and friends over the years. I will come one of these days, but the times I had there were priceless, and I do think of you guys often.

“In fact, only this week I was looking at some photographs from the time there with Keiko and decided to paint Verrucola again.”

Verrucola is a small village nestling around a great mediaeval Malatesta castle and we always go there to paint with our groups on Mondays before enjoying a traditional Italian trattoria lunch in the restaurant there. Feroze says: “At Verrucola, I have painted many views, but the one that always stuck in my head was this one [picture left above] painted with Keiko Tanabe many years ago and then attempted again last week [picture right above] while still in lockdown here in London. It’s the clothesline that fascinated me.”

Thank you for sharing those pictures with us and for your kind words, Feroze.

Just to remind you that we are Cool and Green

Vicki Norman’s evocative oil painting
of sunshine on a nearby vineyard

Just in case you were worried that it may be too warm for you in the summer months in Italy, don’t forget that we are a thousand feet above sea level and enjoy cool breezes from the mountains. But within the Watermill complex itself, we are also Cool and Green!

We have installed air-conditioning units in all our bedrooms and in the public rooms (the dining room, the sitting room, the studio). They are all powered by our array of photovoltaic cells, installed last summer, which are already making more than enough power to ensure that we are self-sufficient in electricity. In the first year of operation we have produced more than 14,000 kilowatt hours of solar-powered electricity and what’s more, we saved more than 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide production.

Mike’s free, interactive, online painting sessions go from strength to strength

Washing on the Line:
a montage of guests’ pictures from a recent session with Mike

Mike Willdridge’s free, interactive, online painting sessions, hosted by Lois, go from strength to strength, with participants describing them as ‘a real delight‘, 'great fun to take part in’,‘a fantastic workshop‘, among many other comments. We are in the middle of a watery theme at the moment and there are more details below on how to join these highly popular sessions.

Mike’s next session is on Thursday 6 August at 2.30pm UK time. We will be painting this waterfall:

If you haven't done so already, please register with Lois by using the Watermill contact form, which you can find by clicking here. Mark the topic as ‘Mike’s free interactive sessions’.

Unlike many online painting programmes, Mike’s will not expect you to ‘look over his shoulder’ for a long demonstration, and perhaps be allowed to ask the odd question or two. No, you will be painting along at more or less the same time, trying out the watercolour techniques that Mike has shown you, step-by-step. He will demonstrate some basic techniques for only a few minutes before you start painting the same subject at home. Then, after you have had your turn, Mike will move onto the next part of the process. Lois will be on hand to field your questions. The session will last a couple of hours.

Before each session Mike supplies a photograph of what is going to be painted, and a list of equipment and colours for your palette. We will send these beforehand to all the participants in the session. After the session we will send you a link that will enable to you revisit Mike’s step-by-step teaching.

And when you’ve enjoyed working with Mike online, why not join him for real, on his Watermill course this August/September this year? Please see next story.

Another montage of guests’ pictures from another session with Mike,
this time painting a busy market scene