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NEWSLETTER ISSUE 152 / FEBRUARY 2023

Dear Friend,

Creative courses at the Watermill in Tuscany

Whatever happened to Rest and Recreation? In the three months since the end of the 2022 season we thought we might have time to put our feet up for a bit. Well, we seem to be busier than ever! It’s not as if we have any building works this winter, apart from relocating the laundry and opening up the frantoio (the old olive press) ready for its transformation into a stunning new communal space.

But since October our feet do not seem to have touched the ground. Mind you we celebrated our joint 140th birthday, enjoyed a family Christmas in Florence with our two daughters, and in January had an excursion to a little village in Emilia to do some research on the book we are writing on the composer Pietro Mascagni. And we are learning to play bridge.

Welcome Gina Shearston
(L)- Gina relaxing with her pet goat Lucy (probably the first goat ever to star in a Watermill newsletter
(R) - One of Gina’s smart new designs for a Watermill ad

Another pleasant task is that we have been busy processing the record number of bookings for this year’s creative courses. Our thanks to everyone who has booked their place. Your support is much appreciated. We still have a few more spaces left on our painting, knitting and Italian language weeks and there are details and links below.

One of the other reasons we have been busy lately is that we’ve been revamping our social media output on Facebook and Instagram, and so on. Bill confesses that is all a bit of a mystery to him (he was the 80th part of the 140th birthday) with Likes, Followers, Posts, Chats, Forums and the like. So we are very pleased to welcome Gina Shearston to the Watermill team to take over the running of our social media efforts. She is from Mexico, but she lives in a village near the Watermill with her English husband, Simon.

Gina is not only a skilled operator in social media, she’s also a graduate in graphic design. So, she’s been freshening up our content with some cool new designs.

Talking of cool, you may remember that last month we told you about our new project to make the Watermill and our guests ‘plastic neutral’ by removing the equivalent of 40,000 plastic bottles from the worst polluted corners of our world’s oceans. Well, last month we received delivery of our new Ocean Bottles which are helping us in our fight. There’s more about it in the 'A Special Delivery' story below.

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

  • Why Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi needs no introduction!
  • The latest session of the Watermill’s popular online interactive painting programme
  • Artistic cheese sandwich anyone?
  • From war-torn regions to peaceful Tuscany. Fiona’s painting adventures
  • Knitting and la bella vita. Two different knitting weeks for you to enjoy
  • Rewriting is everything  – and it’s hard
  • Where do all those Italian surnames come from?

Happy reading!

Creative courses at the Watermill in Italy


Thelma and Louise.
We think they might have had
a more peaceful time had they gone
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.


A Special Delivery. These bottles will help the Watermill (and you) to be ‘plastic neutral’ this year

They’ve arrived! Lois tells the story:

These Ocean Bottles* will help us helping us in our fight to reduce the pollution of our oceans. As Lois says, we have created a project to collect 450 kg of ocean-bound plastic from the world’s most polluted rivers and waterways this year, and to ensure that it is not dumped into the sea. This is equivalent to around 40,000 single-use half-litre bottles. It means, as Lois said, that the Watermill has become ‘plastic neutral’ by pulling out of the ocean as much as plastic as it uses.

What’s more, every time you fill up with water in the beautiful insulated aluminium flasks (we loan you one for your week with us), you’ll also stop even more plastic polluting the seas. We’ll show you how when you arrive.

The Watermill no longer buys water in plastic bottles. Instead, we’ve invested in a clever water dispenser for our communal kitchen which produces filtered water (at ambient temperature, cold or fizzy.) You can fill up your Watermill Ocean Bottle any time you’d like.

The arrival of the Watermill's Ocean Bottles

* Ocean Bottle, a British company, works worldwide to bring a ‘people-powered solution to the ocean plastic crisis’. Through the sales of its recyclable insulated bottles, it raises money to pay people to collect plastic in coastal communities where plastic pollution is worst. The company guarantees this collection through regulated waste-management tracking and verification. The plastic collected is recycled and this process is also monitored. Moreover, the company works with local collectors, who exchange plastic for money, helping them to be financially more secure and to gain access to social resources such as healthcare and education. Since launching in 2019, Ocean Bottle has prevented more than seven million kg of ocean-bound plastic from reaching our oceans. That’s equivalent to 636 million plastic bottles.

Currently eight million metric tonnes (8,000 million kg) of plastic winds up in the oceans every year. The Watermill’s contribution may be a drop in the ocean, but it’s important, nonetheless.


Why Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi needs no introduction! And he has a Watermill room named after him...

Alls quite in Florence
The Watermill’s Botticelli bedroom

While researching for a recent blog on our Watermill bedrooms, Bill came across a name that is not one to conjure with: Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, also known to his friends as Sandro Little Barrel.

If you’ve never heard of him, you’re not alone. Neither had we – and yet we’ve named one of our Watermill bedrooms after him. Perhaps because he is better known to you and me as Sandro Botticelli. He is most famous for his extraordinary paintings, The Birth of Venus and Primavera, but below you can see another of his masterpieces, The Adoration of the Magi. Most experts agree that the figure on the far right in a golden-brown over-gown is Botticelli himself.

Botticelli
Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi, now the Uffizi gallery, Florence;
Close-up: a self-portrait of Botticelli himself

Lois recently took us on a tour of the lovely Botticelli bedroom:


From the magnificent dome of Florence Cathedral to a busy street in Marrakesh. You’ll see the world when you paint online with us

Paintings by Randy's online students

We are well into the swing of the Watermill’s season of on-line, interactive sessions, with our international guests painting along with our two modern maestriRandy Hale and Mike Willdridge. We have another session this month to tell you about, but first let’s look at half a dozen or our guests’ beautiful paintings (selected entirely at random) from one of Randy’s previous sessions, the subject of which was Brunelleschi’s cupola of Florence cathedral.

Our next session is with Mike Willdridge, who will show us how to simplify a busy street scene, like the one in Marrakech, Morocco, in Mike’s source photograph on the left below. On the right is Mike’s practice painting of the scene,

Online painting Session - Mike Willdridge

Mike says: "The aim of this painting is to simplify a busy scene, especially one with lots of figures. Equally, this will be an exercise in painting strong light and heat and composition. I’d like you to tackle both the drawing and painting during the session and I will show you two possible compositional suggestions (drawings) as well as my practice painting." You will be able to access these line drawings and Mike's painting once you have registered for this session.

Mike will also be using these two Edward Seago paintings as a reference and an inspiration.

Paintings by Edward Seago

Mike’s session is on Thursday 16 February at 4 pm UK time (GMT). Please check the time in your own time zone.). You can register to join him by clicking here.

There will be more Watermill online interactive sessions to come in March, and we will tell you more about those in our next newsletter.


Artistic cheese sandwich anyone?

Alls quite in Florence
Picture: The Social Post

We had fun recently reading our favourite online art magazine, DailyArt.com, in which Alexandra Kiely told us about some Italian artists with food in their names.

So how about a little bit of Parmesan cheese, perhaps in a roll? Parmigiana is how they define the famous cheese from Parma, and Parmigianino which we suppose means a little man from Parma, was the nickname of Francesco Mazzola (1503-1540), one of the pioneering artists of the Mannerist style, with its sinuous exaggerations. (Not, Bill says, entirely his cup of tea.)

Paintings by Parmigianino and Panini
Parmigianino self-portrait and a Panini ‘postcard’

And with our cheese we must have a roll, in Italian, a panino, plural panini. Enter Giovanni Paolo Panini (1691-1765), a relatively undistinguished Roman painter of ‘views’, picture postcards as it were, to sell to travellers on their Grand Tour. Above right is his 1734 Interior of Pantheon in Rome, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA. The 1523/4 Parmigianino self-portrait is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.

Alexandra tells us more about foodie artists Carpaccio and Bellini and asks why Bronzino always reminds her of sea bass. Find out why by reading the whole amusing article: just click here.


Watermill in Tuscany's Painting NewsPAINTING NEWS

Tutor of the month: from war-torn land landscapes to peaceful Tuscany. Fiona’s painting adventures

The peaceful Lunigiana
The peaceful beauty of Lunigiana

Watermill painting tutor Fiona Graham Mackay’s paintings have been so much in demand during the past five years that she has travelled across thousands of miles to fulfil commissions – some of them in less than easy circumstances. For example, at the height of some of the worst tensions in Afghanistan, Fiona was painting in Pakistan and the Afghan border.

But it is the peaceful landscape of Lunigiana, the unspoiled area of rural Tuscany which surrounds the Watermill, on which  she is going to concentrate on her painting week with us. We are in the middle of a National Park and there are endless scenes to paint.

Another bonus is that you can pick your favourite painting medium: oil, acrylic, watercolours. Fiona is skilled in them all. She says: “Each one has a unique quality and I enjoy the flexibility of using a diversity of mediums.”

Paintings by Fiona Graham Mackay
Landscape paintings by Fiona in (left to right) watercolour, pastel, oil

So, don’t confine yourself to one medium. Paint with your favourite medium, of course, but perhaps try something new, too. With Fiona helping you, you could be in better hands to experiment. As one former student says: “Fiona is the best tutor I have ever met. She is so talented, friendly, helpful and generous with her ideas. She adjusts and helps all abilities and all painting mediums. I learnt so much.”

Fiona Graham-Mackay

Fiona Graham Mackay
1 - 8 July 2023 - still plenty of places
Painting en plein air (oil, acrylic, watercolour, pastel)
To learn more about Fiona and her course at the mill, please visit her 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Our inspiring 2023 painting courses

Here’s a list of all our inspiring painting tutors for next year, with current availability of our courses.

You will see that some of our painting weeks are already fully booked, but if you fancy that particular week or that particular tutor, don’t despair: there are often cancellations. Please get in touch via the Watermill Contact Form (by clicking here) and we will put you on a waiting list


Ali Hargreaves

Ali Hargreaves
22 - 29 April 2023 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolours
To learn more about Ali and her course at the mill, please visit her 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Randy Hale

Randy Hale
13 - 20 May 2023 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolours
To learn more about Randy and his course at the mill, please visit his 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Pamme Turner

Pamme Turner
20 - 27 May 2023 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolour and gouache en plein air
To learn more about Pamme and her course at the mill, please visit her 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


James Willis

James Willis
3 - 10 June 2023 - one or two places available
Watercolours
To learn more about James and his course at the mill, please visit his 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Herman Pekel

Herman Pekel
10 - 17 June 2023 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolours
To learn more about Herman and his course at the mill, please visit his 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Maggie Renner Hellmann

Maggie Renner Hellmann
24 June – 1 July 2023 - one place available
Oil and watercolour (acrylic, pastel)
To learn more about Maggie and her course at the mill, please visit her 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Fiona Graham-Mackay

Fiona Graham-Mackay
1 - 8 July 2023 - still plenty of places
Painting en plein air (oil, acrylic, watercolour, pastel)
To learn more about Fiona and her course at the mill, please visit her 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Belinda Biggs

Belinda Biggs
8 – 15 July 2023 - still plenty of places
Watercolours
To learn more about Belinda and her course at the mill, please visit her 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Mary Padgett

Mary Padgett
26 August - 2 September 2023 - four or five places available
Pastels (and other portable media) en plein air
To learn more about Mary and her course at the mill, please visit her 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Mike Willdridge

Mike Willdridge
9 - 16 September 2023 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolours and drawing (also gouache and acrylics)
To learn more about Mike and his course at the mill, please visit his 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Brienne M Brown

Brienne M Brown
16 - 23 September 2023 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolours
To learn more about Brienne and her course at the mill, please visit her 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Charles Sluga

Charles Sluga
23 - 30 September 2023 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolours (acrylics and oils)
To learn more about Charles and his course at the mill, please visit his 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Tim Wilmot

Tim Wilmot
30 September - 7 October 2023 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolours
To learn more about Tim and his course at the mill, please visit his 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Grahame Booth

Grahame Booth
7 - 14 October 2023 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolours
To learn more about Grahame and his course at the mill, please visit his 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


 
 
 


Watermill in Italy's Knitting NewsKNITTING NEWS
The Watermill's happy knitters in Tuscany, Italy

Knitting and la bella vita. Enjoy both on our knitting weeks

There are still some places left on our three Watermill knitting weeks this year: on Georgia Farrell's two weeks in April/May, and on our knitting retreat in July.

Georgia Farrell’s dates are Saturday 29 April to Saturday 6 May and Saturday 6 May to Saturday 13 May.

Georgia Farrell is a British designer with a flair for creating architecturally inspired design for hand knitting and beyond. She loves to share the stories and concepts behind each of her designs. With a background in textiles, Georgia skilfully translates her passion for architectural details into textured knitted fabrics. From there she crafts and builds collections of accessories, garments and homewares, to be knitted, worn and enjoyed.

For each of her weeks at the Watermill, Georgia has created a sampler style project to take you through some of the different techniques and stitches she uses to create her architecturally inspired textured patterns, giving you a real insight into the way she works. You will also spend creative time with architectural inspiration and collage, before translating your creations into knitting, by combining colour and texture.

Georgia Farell

Georgia Farell
29 April - 6 May 2023 - still plenty of places
6 - 13 May 2023
- one or two places available
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Georgia and her course at the mill, please visit our 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


For the knitting retreat, from Saturday 15 July to Saturday 22 July, instead of having a tutor, individual guests will bring their own projects to knit during the week. There will knitting sessions on the vine verandah or in the Watermill sitting room, where you will knit and chat in the peaceful ambience of the Watermill. And, since there is no official tutor, we are offering a special blanket discount of £200 GBP per person.

Knitting courses at the Watermill in Italy

All our knitting weeks we will have on outings to savour the unspoiled surroundings of the mill, in the environmentally protected area of Lunigiana. We will take you to a nearby ancient village with its imposing 13th century castle, to market day in a nearby walled mediaeval town, to a tranquil monastery where you can knit in the shady cloisters or in the enchanting gardens, to a 1000-year-old hilltop village with stunning views of the Apuan Alps, the marble mountains of Carrara. And we’ll organise an excursion for you to the beautiful Ligurian fishing villages of the Cinque Terre or to the quintessential walled Italian city of Lucca.

Add to that the wonderful food, both at the Watermill and at typical local Italian restaurants and we think this will be a week to remember.


Georgia Farell

Georgia Farell
29 April - 6 May 2023 - still plenty of places
6 - 13 May 2023
- one or two places available
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Georgia and her course at the mill, please visit our 2023 Tutor Profile Page.


Knitting Retreat at the Watermill in Italy

Watermill Knitting Retreat
15 - 22 July 2023 - still some places
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about the Watermill Knitting Retreat at the mill, please visit our 2023 Retreat 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 2023 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

Don’t forget rewriting is everything and it’s hard. Perseverance is the name of the game

Creative writing at the Watermill in Tuscany

We hope all you aspiring writers are hard at it. It’s a tough and solitary life sometimes, but it’s all worthwhile in the end. And heed the wise words of Dumbledore (right).

Also, as Michael Crighton says: “Books aren’t written, they are rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.”

But remember, you are not alone. Bill is working on the umpteenth rewrite of the sequel to his A Matter of Perspective and it is still not right. Onwards and upwards!

If you are really stuck, our creative writing tutor Jo Parfitt would be a great help. At the moment, however, her course on Writing Your Life Stories is fully booked. But there are often cancellations and if you get in touch (via the Watermill Contact Form, just click here) and we will put you on the waiting list. And if Bill can help/commiserate in any way, let us know on the Contact Form, too. In the meantime, stick with it. Perseverance is the name of the game.


Jo Parfitt

Jo Parfitt
17 – 24 June 2023 - fully booked, waiting list open
Write your life stories
To learn more about Jo and her course at the mill, please visit her 2023 Profile Page.


 
 
 

ITALIAN LANGUAGE NEWS

Where do all those Italian surnames come from?

Italian Surname Map

Writing about Sandro Botticelli’s name (story above) made us think about Italian surnames. Italy seems to have more surnames than any other country in Europe and they can often be confusing. Bill read a fascinating article in italianheritage.com about the etymology of Italian names. There are patronymics (named after the founder of the family, e.g. Bernardi (from Bernado) or Di Francesco, toponymics (named after a place, e.g.  Monti, Napolitano) and occupational surnames (referring to the work of an ancestor, e.g. Ferrari, a metal worker, or Zappa, a farmer).

Giorgio Armani and Enzo Ferrari
Giorgio Armani and
Enzo Ferrari:
their names come from
freeman and metal worker

But much more fun are surnames derived from nicknames like the 'small barrel', Botticelli. Italian Heritage takes up the story:

“Some of the most common surnames have their origin in the colour or form of the hair, the complexion, a physical trait, as in Rossi, Ruscio, Rubeo, Morelli, Ricci, Biondi, Corti and Bassi, Bassetti (short stature), Piccoli (small), Grossi (big), Testa (head), Longhi (long). These nicknames might also have a joking or otherwise descriptive connotation as Bellomo (handsome man), Guerci (bad-sighted, one-eyed), Sordi (deaf).

“More creatively, an ironic and satirical, or even derogatory nickname was made with a verb and an object indicating an action typical of the individual as in Pappalardo (that who eats lard), Bevilacqua (water drinker), Fumagalli (chicken thief), Magnavacca (beef eater), , Quattrocchi (four eyes, possibly because of glasses, or meaning very careful, cunning), Ammazzalorso (bear killer), Frangipane (bread breaker).

Leonardo DiCaprio and Nancy Pelosi
Leonardo DiCaprio
(from a goatherd or an ancestor
who looked like a goat)
and Nancy Pelosi
(from peloso, nickname for a man
with long or unkempt hair
and beard)

“Other surnames may have come from the personality or moral features, as Selvaggi (Savage), Allegretti (happy people), Bruschi (non-diplomatic). Names of animals could serve to the same purpose of a character or physical feature, so there were Mosca (a fly, someone small or annoying), Cavallo (someone big, noisy or with large front teeth), Gatto (cat), Grillo (cricket), Lepore (hare, possibly from the orofacial cleft, which might be alsolso be genetic), Volpe (fox).

There are many more examples in the article in Italian Heritage, which you can read by clicking here.

Why not come and learn more, not only about Italian surnames, but to immerse yourself in the whole beautiful Italian language. And, of course, enjoy la Bella Vita Italiana in unspoiled rural Tuscany.

Our Italian course is suitable both for beginners and for those with more knowledge of the language, because we use a special method of teaching a foreign language to adults which is focused and fun and enables each individual not only to learn from our teacher, the wonderful Giulia Balestri, but from each other.

Our courses are inspired by the methods of 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 expertise 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. Well before the course we will ask you about your interests and aspirations and integrate your answers in the week’s tuition.

Watermill language group
Learning Italian under the dappled shade
of the vine verandah

This really is a ‘course with a difference.’ Not only are there formal lessons on the vine verandah and walled garden (some 20 hours in the week), but you also make visits, guided tours 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.

As one course participant said last year: “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.”


Our 2023 Italian Language course


Francesca la SalaGiulia Balestri
14 - 21 October 2023 - still plenty of places
Learning Italian with the Italians
To learn more about Giulia and her 2023 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