Dear Friend,

Rodgers and Hammerstein had it right, June was burstin’ out all over at the Watermill, both literally, as our gardens bloomed in early-summer splendour and as the participants on our courses burst into painting and writing creativity.

We ran three painting courses, with Maggie Renner Hellmann, Ruth Korch and Randy Hale, and one of our famous Write Your Life Stories weeks with Jo Parfitt.

Left: Maggie Renner Hellmann painted this arresting picture of the valley of the River Rosaro
from the walls of the nearby mediaeval town of Fivizzano.
Right: A photograph of the view

And again, by all accounts, a good time was had by all. Among the comments:

For Maggie:

“Words don’t do justice to all Maggie Renner Hellmann’s charming and artistic attributes. As a complete novice, she guided me with tact and inspiration and I ended up quite proud of my watercolour daubs that resembled those by a 2 year old. Still, practice makes perfect!

“The accommodation in picturesque rural surroundings in Tuscany was very comfortable and restful with all amenities. Everything ran like clockwork. Delicious food appeared as if by magic at mealtimes washed down by copious quantities of local wine. Nothing was too much trouble for Lois and Bill Breckon or for Karsten. Members of staff were unobtrusive and everything imaginable was done to render it a memorable week. The fellowship of other participants (painting and non- painting) was interesting and congenial. All in all, it was a most enjoyable holiday.”

Picture by Watermill guest MJ Cooley

For Ruth:

“We are still relishing this past week! Thank you for your amazingly beautiful venue, delicious food, and of course... the new friendships made ...What a delightful experience from start to finish!”

For Randy:

”Thank you for one of the highlights of my lifetime during my stay at the Watermill. Here is the painting that I did of that wonderful patio. I'll be framing it, hanging it in my studio and remembering a beautiful experience.”

For Jo:

“Thank you for a wonderful week at the beautiful Watermill. I’ve had the best time and have returned home with lovely memories of time spent in Italy with such an inspirational group of people. I couldn’t have asked for better hosts... This trip for me has been a massive tick off my bucket list and it was made even better by the lovely group of people with whom I’ve had the privilege to share the week.”

Randy Hale's vibrant painting
of the weekly market in nearby Fivizzano

Why don’t you 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 some 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:

• Mike steps in to save Milind’s watercolour course
• Lavender, roses, sunflowers: Lois keeps us blooming and colourful
• Vincent van Gogh’s little-known first series of sunflowers
• Eine kleine nachtmusik at the Watermill

Happy reading!

The pictures at the top and bottom of this introductory section are: top left: the delicate beauty of the albizia blossom in the Watermill walled garden; top right the orange trumpets of the bignonia above the Watermill’s demijohns. Bottom left: Rose blooms on the Tuscan house staircase; a bee in the bignonias.

Celebrating a lifelong romance,
Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman

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.

Mike steps in to save Milind’s course

Mike’s picture of the River Rosaro
as it rolls past the mill

Italian bureaucracy is notorious for its pernickety slowness, but the Indians can give them a close run for their money! We were looking forward to our first-ever painting course with an Indian tutor, Milind Mulick. But, due to Indian bureaucratic delays, Milind has failed to secure the visa that will enable him to come to Posara and it is highly unlikely that he will do so before his course in September. So, we have had to come to the reluctant conclusion that he will not be able to attend the course.

The good news is that our inspiring English watercolour tutor Mike Willdridge, who has many years’ experience teaching at the Watermill, has kindly agreed to take Milind’s place. So, Mike will be running Milind’s watercolour course from Saturday 17 September to Saturday 24 September 2022, as well as his own course a couple of weeks earlier.

Milind’s course was fully booked and we hope that all the participants will be happy to swap to Mike as a tutor. If you are interested in joining us, however, please do be in touch in case spaces come up...

Mike’s vibrant pictures; of the lane leading from the Watermill to the village of Posara
and of the Millstream bubbling under one of our rustic footbridges

Mike Willdridge, from Dorset in the west of England, is one of the Watermill’s most regular tutors. He works in a wide range of media and is an enthusiastic and energetic tutor, 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.

Mike constantly uses a sketchbook and will encourage you to do the same. A comment from a previous guest: “A wonderful holiday... you were generous and friendly hosts and Mike was an excellent painting tutor.” There’s more praise for Mike and his course at the Watermill in the story Featured Tutor of the Month below.

So, Mike will be tutor on two Watermill courses this year. Here are the details:

Mike Willdridge (1) - 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.

Mike Willdridge (2) - recently opened, places available
17 - 24 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.

Lois keeps us blooming – inside and out!

In the past year or so, Lois has been taking a renewed interest in the walled garden and it is looking magnificent, with new flowers and shrubs blooming everywhere.

Among the old friends that continue, however, are the lavender beds beneath the rose pergola.

They will remind us of summer throughout the year

Photo credit: Lara Breckon

When the lavender is flowering strongly, as it was last month, Lois cuts back some of the flowers and stalks, and binds them together to hang in the communal kitchen, producing a wonderful aroma and memories of summer.

Talking of flowers gives Bill the excuse to showing you again this lovely picture of Lois holding a swathe of sunflowers, which he thinks epitomises the warm and sunny welcome to all our guests receive the Watermill.

And talking of sunflowers, you’ll know, of course, Vincent van Gogh‘s most famous paintings of them, but did you also know that he painted an earlier series, much admired by Paul Gauguin. Bill made a blog about them last month, a précis of which is below.

Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888,
Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany. Detail

Another swathe of sunflowers to brighten your day

Vincent van Gogh‘s series of paintings of sunflowers in a vase are as iconic as Leonardo’s Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel. But an article in the online Daily Art magazine tells us that those famous Sunflowers (one of which you can see right) is actually not the first, but the second series of sunflower paintings made by van Gogh:

“There is an earlier series of four works, made during his years in Paris that depict flowers lying on the ground. Paul Gauguin saw van Gogh’s Parisian sunflowers and greatly admired them. He subsequently acquired two paintings and hung them above the bed in his apartment.”

Vincent van Gogh,Withered Sunflowers, 1887,
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

So, the famous Sunflowers, seven of them in all, are actually the second series and they were, of course, painted to decorate Gauguin’s room when he stayed with van Gogh in Arles. They are now scattered in museums around the world.

You can read the whole article at https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/van-goghs-sunflowers/.

Watermill painting tutors have also tried their hand at sunflowers, and it is fascinating to see the different approaches to the subject.

Maggie Renner Hellmann’s colourful composition (left); Randy Hale, feeling somewhat abstract (centre); Sandra Strohschein’s approach is a little softer (right)

Eine kleine nachtmusik at the Watermill

Well, to be strictly accurate, it is a little evening music, un po’ di musica serale, as the Italians would have it.

An innovation on our creative courses is a little music concert, provided by two young musicians, sister and brother Letitia and Harry, who come to play for us one evening while we enjoy our aperitivi on the vine verandah. Both live locally and are studying music at a nearby conservatorio. We are happy to support them in their endeavours, and enjoy listening to their gentle melodies, both classical and modern, on the clarinet and the guitar.

Painting holiday guest Abigail Hunt took the picture above of Letitia and Harry, with Lois and guest Sandra Jones in the foreground. And here is Abigail’s picture (right) of the rose pergola before the musicians started playing. Colourful, or what?