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NEWSLETTER ISSUE 143 / MAY 2022

Dear Friend,

Watermill courtyard paintings

Cast off for’ard; cast off aft, raise the mains’l. The 2022 Watermill creative season is under weigh! We began with a knitting course tutored by American Vogue Knitting editor Norah Gaughan, followed by our first painting course of the season, with passionate pastellist Mary Padgett. Here (below) are the knitters working on one of Norah’s special projects and having fun, chatting away in the Watermill sitting room and an elegant pastellist, Jeffra Ruesink, painting in the Watermill courtyard:

Knitting and painting at the Watermill in Tuscany, Italy

Why not put yourself in the picture? Come and enjoy inspiring tuition, warm hospitality, a beautiful setting and wonderful scenery, delicious food and the convivial company of like-minded people. We’re looking forward to a full season of creative courses, in painting, writing, knitting and Italian language, with a record number of more than 250 guests so far reserving their places. If you are already booked in, we look forward to welcoming you here; if you haven’t booked, we still have a few places left. There are details and links below.

In this month’s newsletter we also have stories on:

  • 40,000 kwh and counting: Another Cool and Green milestone for the Watermill
  • One of the world’s best-ever portraits and of one of the worst ever popes
  • Our ancient mulberries: shorn and forlorn -- but ready to burst forth mightily again
  • And they say romance is dead -- a Venetian gondola scene
  • Painting tutors of the month: Carl March and Paul Talbot-Greaves
  • Medical inspiration for Helen Connington’s amazing knitting creations
  • Why Jo Parfitt is bursting with writing pride
  • Time to get rid of your cianfrusaglie.

Happy reading!

Paintings of the Watermill in Tuscany's courtyard

Come to the watermill in Tuscany with your partner or friend
“Now you’ve finished writing Frankenstein,
let’s go to the Watermill.”

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.

Picture right: Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Painting: The Lover's Seat: Shelley and Mary Godwin in Old St Pancras Churchyard by William Powell Frith, 1877


40,000 kwh and counting. Another Cool and Green milestone for the Watermill

40, 000 kwh savings at the Watermill

As you may know, more than a couple of years ago, we installed at the Watermill a hidden array of photovoltaic panels on our south-facing roofs, to produce electricity from the sun. These panels make us more than self-sufficient in electricity: we make much more than we have to buy during sunless periods. We sell the excess back to the grid, and even though they pay us far less than they charge, we are still more than breaking even.

And at the end of April, we passed another milestone. As the snapshot above from the smart little app we used to monitor progress shows, we have now produced 40,000 kilowatt hours of electricity from the sun. And we have avoided more than 28 tonnes of carbon dioxide production.

Morning sun at the Watermill Italy, Europe

We are feeling quite proud, even though it is a drop in the ocean compared with, say, the polluting output of Chinese coal-powered stations. Nonetheless, production from the sun enables us to run air-conditioning in all our rooms, both in your bedrooms and in the public rooms, like the communal dining room, sitting room and the studio. And it gives us once again the excuse to show you this lovely picture of the sun rising over the Watermill garden.


One of the world’s best-ever portraits and of one of the worst ever popes

Leo X

The first time Bill saw this magnificent Raphael portrait, he thought: “I’d never buy a used car from that man!” And as for his two cronies, one had obviously been running back the mileage counter, while the other had clearly been fiddling with the exhaust emission figures. He wasn’t far wrong: Raphael’s 1518 picture of Pope Leo X is probably one of the best portraits ever painted, and Leo was undoubtedly one of the worst popes. Mind you, it was a close-run thing with the crony on the left, who became Clement VII, responsible for the infamous Sack of Rome.

Leo continued to create problems five centuries later: he was the subject of one of our ‘one-stop Uffizi’ adventures, but when we got to the gallery, we found that he had been moved to the Pitti Palace, in an exhibition celebrating the painting’s recent restoration. So, this ‘one-stop Uffizi’ was actually a ‘one-stop Pitti.’

Again, we left early in the morning and were able to linger over the picture for as long as we liked, with hardly anyone else there. It was well worth the trip: the painting has been sensitively restored, enabling us to see it in all its original splendour. You can appreciate Raphael’s mastery of his art in, for example, the way he creates different textures in the reds which dominate the picture, from the Pope’s robe, to the Cardinal’s gowns, to the red tablecloth and the tassels of the Pope’s chair. Georgio Vasari, writing in his Lives of the Artists, was particularly impressed by the “rustling and shining”of Leo’s damask robe.

Lois and I were also able to examine closely the extraordinary way Raphael has painted so simple an object as the metal pommel on Leo’s chair. It shines in the only lighting in the picture, a window ‘offstage’ to the right, the outline which is reflected in the metal.

Leo Knob

As we said, this is one of the best portraits ever painted, but its subject was one of the worst-ever Popes. Leo X was born Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1475, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the ruler of Florence. Although never ordained, Giovanni became a cardinal at the age of 13 and was elected Pope in 1513. While he was highly educated and sophisticated and a notable patron of the arts, Leo was also a lover of luxury, a lecher, a glutton and a spendthrift. His most notorious quote is: “Since God has given us a papacy, let us enjoy it.” Leo more or less bankrupted the Church and lost much of the Papal territory won by his ‘soldier-pope’ predecessor, Julius II. And the sale of indulgences during his papacy also led to the Reformation.

You can read all about the history and the art in our blog on this wonderful painting, by clicking here.


Shorn and forlorn -- but ready to burst forth mightily again

The Watermill's Mulberry Trees

These ancient mulberry trees in the Watermill car park were given a ‘short back and sides’ in April by local tree surgeons. It may look a bit brutal, but it’s been so skilfully done that soon they will be sprouting mightily again.

No one is quite sure how old they are. We joke with our gardener, Flavio Terenzoni, that they must be hundreds of years old, since he remembers coming as a boy to gather leaves from the young trees to feed the primary school silkworms.

But, seriously, Flavio is much younger than that, and with their gnarled and hollowed out trunks (the trees that is, not Flavio) we reckon they are centenarians at least.

Mulberry tree at the Watermill's entrance in Tuscany

And in a few short weeks they will again be pushing out shoots and leaves, and before you can say “Summer in Posara,” their short haircuts will be an old memory.

Here is the Google Maps picture of the Watermill entrance gate, with the mulberry trees to the right.


Gondola sleep
Picture: Picture: Italia-Italy

And they say romance is dead!

We couldn’t resist showing you again this picture of a couple snoozing in the gondola in Venice last month.

Just look at the expression of the gondolier’s face.


Watermill in Tuscany's Painting NewsPAINTING NEWS

Our inspiring 2022 painting tutors

Here is the complete list of our painting tutors for 2022. You can find out more about each of them by clicking on their Profile page link in their entries below.


Keiko Tanabe

Keiko Tanabe - one or two places left
21 – 28 May 2022
Watercolours
To learn more about Keiko and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.


Maggie Renner Hellman

Maggie Renner Hellman - two or three places left
28 May - 4 June 2022
Courageous Color Workshop’ Your choice: oils, acrylics, pastels and/or watercolour travel sketches
To learn more about Maggie and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.


Ruth Korch

Ruth Korch - fully booked, waiting list open
4 - 11 June 2022
Art journaling
To learn more about Ruth and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.


Randy Hale

Randy Hale - two or three places left
11 - 18 June 2022
Watercolours
To learn more about Randy and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.


Vicki Norman

Vicki Norman - fully booked, waiting list open
2 - 9 July 2022
Oils and watercolours (and other mediums)
To learn more about Vicki and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.


Pamme Turner

Pamme Turner - two or three places left
9 - 16 July 2022
Watercolour and gouache en plein air
To learn more about Pamme and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.


Carl March

Carl March - two or three places left
16 - 23 July 2022
Drawing and watercolour en plein air
To learn more about Carl and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.


Paul Talbot-Greaves

Paul Talbot-Greaves - three or four places left
20 - 27 August 2022
Watercolours (and acrylics)
To learn more about Paul and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.


Rebecca de Mendonça

Rebecca de Mendonça - three or four places left
27 August - 3 September 2022
Pastels
To learn more about Rebecca and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.


Mike Willdridge

Mike Willdridge - fully booked, waiting list open
3 - 10 September 2022
Watercolours and drawing (also gouache and acrylics, with a special emphasis on drawing on location.)
To learn more about Mike and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.


Varvara Neiman

Varvara Neiman - still plenty of places
10 - 17 September 2022
Water-based oils, acrylics and watercolours
To learn more about Varvara and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.


Milind Mulick

Milind Mulick - fully booked, waiting list open
17 - 24 September 2022
‘Colourful watercolours’
To learn more about Milind and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.


Cynthia Armstrong

Cynthia Armstrong - one or two places left
24 September - 1 October 2022
Watercolours and gouache
To learn more about Cynthia and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.


Tim Wilmot

Tim Wilmot - two or three places left
1 - 8 October 2022
Watercolours
To learn more about Tim and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.


Grahame Booth

Grahame Booth - fully booked, waiting list open
8 - 15 October 2022
Watercolours
To learn more about Grahame and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.


 
 
 


Featured painting tutor of the month (1): Carl March

Painting by Carl March

We love this watercolour, which our tutor Carl March recently published on Facebook. It’s a wonderful compilation of colours and shapes and a composition which really draws you into the picture. Carl calls this page from his sketchbook ‘Winter Heath,’

Like most artists, Carl uses his sketchbook constantly, and if you join us on his inspiring painting course at the Watermill this summer, he will encourage you to do the same in the glorious countryside surrounding the mill.

We have 11 people already booked into this course, but we have room for one or two more painters (and their non-painting partners if they would like to join them). And don’t forget you will be Cool and Green: all our bedrooms and public rooms, including the studio, are air-conditioned, powered by our hidden array of photovoltaic cells which make us self-sufficient in electricity.

Bring your sketchbook!

All the fun of the fair:  another couple of scintillating pages from Carl’s sketchbook
All the fun of the fair: another couple of scintillating pages from Carl’s sketchbook

Carl March

Carl March - two or three places left
16 - 23 July 2022
Drawing and watercolour en plein air
To learn more about Carl and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.


Featured painting tutor of the month (2): Paul Talbot-Greaves

Painting by Paul Talbot-Greaves

We always say you will be Cool and Green at the Watermill, referring to our efforts to be as environmentally friendly as we possibly can, not least with our cooling air conditioning in every room, powered by our hidden array of photovoltaic cells, which makes us self-sufficient in electricity

But there’s a lot of other green around the Watermill, in this glorious area of rural Tuscany: trees, grasses, our famous bamboo and a myriad of other greenery. And, let’s face it, it’s not always that easy to capture it with your brush. Well, who better to teach you to paint green (or rather, greens) that Watermill tutor Paul Talbot-Greaves, who will be with us again this summer?

Painting by Paul Talbot-Greaves

The picture above is from Paul’s online tutorial 'Painting Greens in Watercolour', (https://www.talbot-greaves.com/online-tutorials) while on the left is his watercolour of the road from Posara to the nearby walled mediaeval town of Fivizzano. Green, but scintillating.

We still have a few places left on Paul’s watercolour course (dates and the link below), so why not join him at the Watermill and be doubly green?

Paul Talbot-Greaves

Paul Talbot-Greaves - three or four places left
20 - 27 August 2022
Watercolours (and acrylics)
To learn more about Paul and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.


Watermill in Italy's Knitting NewsKNITTING NEWS

Medical inspiration for Helen’s amazing knitting creations

We aways admire the skill and dexterity of our knitting week guests as they work on the projects devised for them by our tutors. And do you know they often knit away without looking! Not only that, they have amazing mathematical skills, able easily to make complicated calculations and to understand complex patterns.

Anatomy Knit and ECG by Helen Connington

But we were particularly impressed by one of the guests on our first knitting week this year, Helen Connington, from the city of Hull in the north-east of England, whose career a Nurse Practitioner has bought a fresh and fascinating dimension to her the knitted creations.

Above right you can see what we call Helen’s ‘X-ray pullover,’ an evocation in wool of what lies beneath the skin of wearer, ribs, body parts and all. And above left an ‘ECG’ pattern, designed and knitted by Helen. If you look carefully, you can see a blip in the heart rhythm, caused by the love of the wearer’s life passing by.


Still time to grab a place on a Watermill knitting holiday

Knitting Group at the Watermill in Italy

We call them knitting and la Bella Vita Italiana and our knitting holidays are the perfect relaxing combination of knitting every day with like-minded people, enjoying the unspoiled atmosphere and beautiful scenery of rural Tuscany, together with inspiring teaching, warm hospitality and delicious food and wine. There are excursions to an imposing castle, to market day in a walled mediaeval town, to the quintessential Italian city of Lucca or to the seaside delights of the Cinque Terre. And of course, knitting, knitting and knitting in the sunshine or in the dappled shade.

We are on our second knitting holiday of the season, with Louisa Harding, but we still have a place left on Debbie Abrahams’ week, if you’d like to make a last-minute booking. Details and a link below.

Debbie Abrahams

Debbie Abrahams has been designing and teaching handknitted textiles for more than 20 years and is a specialist in the field of colour work and beading.

Throughout her entire career she has worked alongside renowned handknit company Rowan Yarns, both as a Designer and a Design Consultant for the brand. She has tutored workshops across the UK, Europe and the USA.

Knitting by Debbie Abrahams

Debbie is best known for her Mystery Blanket and Cushion Clubs which have been become a global success with more than 1,000 knitters from all over the world signed up to her annual projects. "Blanket squares are the perfect vehicle for my designing, giving me the freedom to explore colour, texture and embellishment within a set number of stitches and rows for each block – it’s just pure adventure!"

On her 2022 Watermill course you will be working with Debbie on a specially designed project, incorporating several different knitting techniques, including colourwork, knitting with beads and textured stitches.


Debbie Abrahams

Debbie Abrahams - one place left
14 - 21 May 2022
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Debbie and her course at the mill, please visit our 2022 Profile Page.


Knitting group at the watermill in Italy

Don't forget your partner!

And don’t forget that your friend or partner doesn’t need to participate in the creative course, whether it’s painting, language or writing.

We offer them a range of Alternative activities for partners on all our 2022 courses, as well as a generous £GBP 250 discount if they share a room with you.


 
 
 

Creative writing News at the watermill in ItalyCREATIVE WRITING NEWS

Jo Parfitt is bursting with pride

Jo’s son Joshua and his first book
Jo’s son Joshua and his first book

There is a lovely story in Jo Parfitt’s Monthly Inspirer newsletter about three generations of writers in her family. We will let her tell the story in her own words :

“My father would have been so proud.

“Joshua, our 29-year-old, has just published his first book and at the end of April he came to visit us in the UK from his home in Spain to launch it into the world. My father gave up his day job as a senior lecturer in Maths and Computing, to be a full-time writer at the age of 55. He went on to write 31 books. I knew I wanted to be a writer at the age of 15 and, at 24, my first book, French Tarts, was published by Octopus. I have now written 32 books.” And now, as the first in a third generation of writers, Joshua has written Back to the Slate Mines: Reviving the Collyweston Slate Industry.

"It was published by us at Summertime Publishing with funding from a local building company. Josh spent seven years of his childhood growing up in Collyweston, a Northamptonshire village famed for its ancient slate mines and and iconic roofworks."

Josh, his brother, Sam and their friends used to play in the disused slate mines that lay across a cornfield from our house. Climate change and the lack of freezing winters meant the industry had had to die out. But now, thanks to hard work and university research, Collyweston slate is mined once more. The new slate adorns Bodley’s Court, Cambridge, which won the 2020 Roof of the Year in the Heritage Roofing category.

"So, yes, Collyweston slate is a big deal and yes, Josh writing the book is a big deal too. We were living in the Netherlands at the time of the commission and so Josh went to live with his grandparents while he researched. He spent time on rooftops, interviewing slaters, went down mineshafts and visited everyone and everywhere he could that would increase his knowledge. Not only would Grandpa be proud as punch (he died before the book was published) of his grandson, but my brother, Josh’s uncle, Patrick Gosling, took most of the photographs too. This really was a family affair.”

Jo will be with us again this June for another of her famous Write your life stories courses. We are currently fully booked, but as we always say, there may well be cancellations, so if you would like to come and learn the secrets of writing your memoirs, please let us know via the Watermill Contact Form by clicking here.


Our 2022 Creative Writing course


Jo Parfitt

Jo Parfitt - fully booked, waiting list open
18 – 25 June 2022
Write your life stories
To learn more about Jo and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.


 
 
 

ITALIAN LANGUAGE NEWS

Time to get rid of your cianfrusaglie

Cainfrusaglie
Picture: The Local, Italy

Here’s a lovely Italian word, courtesy of The Local, the online English-language newspaper: cianfrusaglie. It is pronounced chan-froo-ZA-yleh and if it clutters up your mouth and trips up your tongue, that’s the way it should be, says the newspaper, because cianfrusaglie means “knickknacks, odds and ends, bric-a-brac, clutter: valueless junk, essentially, clutter.”

So, if your house is piena di cianfrusaglie, full of clutter, now is the time to start le pulizie di primavera¸spring cleaning. When you’ve finished, why not treat yourself to a week at the Watermill, to learn more intriguing words and more about the delightful Italian language?

Learning Italian at the Watermill in Europe
Convivial conversation and no clutter in the Watermill walled garden

Join us to soak up Italian and enjoy la bella vita iItaliana on our unique Italian Language course, which is running again this autumn, from Saturday 15 October to Saturday 22 October 2022.

This really is a ‘course with a difference’. Not only are there formal lessons on the vine verandah (some 20 hours in the week), but you also make trips and excursions to savour the natural beauty of Lunigiana, the area around the mill, to explore its history and culture, to sample its traditional foods – and above all, to meet the people, speak Italian, and practise what you’ve learned.

The Watermill has teamed up again with Italian language tutor Giulia Balestri, to produce a week in which you can learn Italian in the most natural and enjoyable way. Your immersion into the language and culture of real Italians will also be individually customised, to suit your curiosity and your interests, helping you to treasure everything you learn and make it a seamless part of who you are.

This exciting language course is suitable for all levels of ability, because of the special approach inspired by Professor Bertrand Schwartz of Paris University, who overturned the concept of teaching to adults, with a method that not only develops theoretical knowledge, but practical know-how as well. The aim is to enhance the personal qualities of each student, tailoring the teaching to their needs and ambitions, establishing active and confident relationships, where the student is the true protagonist in the course.

Writing group at the Watermill in Tuscany
Learning Italian
under the dappled shade of the vine verandah

One previous course participant said: “A super language week: well organised, giving us a taste of the ‘real Italy.’ Despite the disparity in ability our tutor managed to help all of us towards a better understanding and production of the Italian language. The lessons were fun, interactive and helped me enormously.”

Another added: “I can honestly say it was the nicest week I have had for a long time.”

We have 10 people already booked into this relaxing and inspiring week, two of whom are nonparticipating partner, so we have room for three or four more ‘language-learners’ – and their partners, too, if they would like to join them.


Our 2022 Italian Language course


Francesca la SalaGiulia Balestri - still three or four places
15 - 22 October 2022
Learning Italian with the Italians
To learn more about Giulia and her
2022 course at the mill, please click here.


 
 
 


The watermill in Italy's newsletter specialsNEWSLETTER SPECIALS

Everything's included in your watermill painting holiday, creative writing holiday, knitting week or Italian Language course

Don’t forget that everything is included in the cost of a painting holiday, writing, knitting, or language holiday: tuition, accommodation (including all linen and towels), pre-dinner aperitifs, all meals and local transportation (including transfers to Pisa airport; an excursion by train to visit the ancient walled city of Lucca or the stunning seaside villages of the Cinque Terre).

All you have to do is to get to Pisa airport and we do the rest.

Whether you're travelling alone or with a partner you can be sure of a warm welcome, and that you'll be well looked after. We have built our reputation on the comfort of the mill and the care we provide.


Thank you for reading the watermill in Italy's newsletterTHANK YOU

We very much look forward to welcoming you to the mill and, for those of you who have already tasted the many delights at The Watermill at Posara, we look forward to welcoming you back.

Your hosts at the watermill, Italy

With very best wishes a tutti

Your hosts at the watermill in Tuscany

Lois and Bill Breckon