Dear Friend,
Every month, in the section Bring Your Partner or Friend: There’s Plenty for Them to Do near the top of our newsletter, we feature a famous couple from history, literature or cinema, urging our guests to bring their non-participating partners with them to enjoy the delights of the Watermill. We make up a fictitious and, we hope, entertaining quotation to go with the pictures. Among many others, we have had Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (the Queen was amused to be contemplating a visit to the Watermill), Thelma and Louise (who, we suggested, might have had a quieter time had they come to us rather than gone on their scary road trip) and, of course, Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett (Mr Darcy came without Prejudice while Elizabeth needed little Persuasion).
This month, however, is different: we are putting you in the driving seat. We would like you to choose your literary/historical heroine or hero. They can be individuals, or you may want to nominate a couple. Then in 100 words or less, tell us why she, he or they deserve to be there.
There will be a prize of course: the winner gets to bring her/his partner absolutely free when she/he has booked into one of our renowned creative courses next year (2024). (If you do not want to bring a partner, we’ll give you £250 GBP off the cost of your holiday instead.) Please note that this offer is for next year, 2024. This year, 2023, the mill is pretty full already.
So here’s the brief: please tell us in 100 words or less about your heroine/hero/couple, and send it to us using our watermill contact form by clicking here. Select 'My Heroine/Hero' from the ‘message subject’ drop-down menu, fill in the form and email it to us. The adjudicators will be our Watermill writing tutor Jo Parfitt and Lois Breckon, La Padrona of the Watermill. As usual in the Parfitt and Breckon families, their final word will be law. The competition will end on 25 March 2023 and we should be able to announce a winner in time for our April newsletter.
(Just one legal note: when you sign up for the competition, we will send you our monthly Watermill newsletters and other emails about our exciting new activities from time to time. We will not disclose your email address to any third parties).
So, go on, tell us who your heroine/hero/favourite famous couple are, and get the chance to win a free holiday for your partner or friend at the Watermill. If you need any further inspiration, the online Writers Write magazine recently ran an article on the five best heroes and heroines of romance novels, and you can find out who they are in a story below, in this newsletter’s Writing News section.
Oh! And there’s another heroine in this month’s newsletter, this time in real-life: 19th-century French painter Berthe Morisot, a true pioneering Impressionist.
Edouard Manet's portrait of Berthe Morisot and
Alan Bates as Gabriel Oak in Far from the Madding Crowd
As we said, the Watermill is pretty full this season, but there are still a few places on some courses: details and links below. And don’t forget that even if a course is fully booked, there are often cancellations, so, if there is a tutor or a week you particularly fancy, but it is currently full, don’t despair, but get in touch through our Watermill Contact Form (by clicking here) and we will put you on a waiting list.
In this month’s newsletter we also have stories on:
- Painting from puddles
- Gathering moss in the garden
- Vietnamese lady cyclists
- Egyptian socks
- Italian time
Happy reading!
The pictures top and bottom of this introductory section show some of the heroes and heroines who have starred in previous Watermill newsletters: (top) Victoria and Albert, Thelma and Louise. (Bottom) Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Darcy and Elizabeth.
Bring a partner: there's plenty for them to do
Choose your Heroine/Hero
Competition
See above for details
Put your favourite hero/heroine or famous/historical/romantic couple in the picture on the right. It is up to you who stars here! Let us know your choice, for a chance to win a free holiday for your non-participating partner. Please see above for details.
Remember that partners have lots of fun too. Even if you don’t win, you should bring them along with you. 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 and (if you don't win the competition!) a generous £GBP 250 discount if they share a room with you.
Our moss-gathering, non-stone-rolling fat man: an annual progress report
His charm is that he is always there
It’s that time of year again. We’re all waiting for spring to start springing, some more patiently than others. But none more patiently than our friend right, the Watermill’s resident stone fat man, lazing indolently in the walled garden. He’s been there a dozen or so years, with never a complaint, whatever the weather. It was a dullish February day when Gina Shearston took his picture, but he still gazed happily up at us.
He is stone-hearted, of course, and stone everything else: he’s a small statue we bought many years ago from Norman Defoe, a friend in Scotland. Our stone man came with us when we moved to Italy in 2010 and since then he’s been recumbently contemplating the world from the top of his garden wall. And gathering moss!
About this time of year, we usually take his picture. Below are the 2022 and 2020 snapshots (we missed out in 2021, blame Covid) which show he’s doing a fine job of moss-gathering.
Painting people from puddles and two Vietnamese lady bicyclists: who says the Watermill’s online interactive sessions are not eclectic?
March sees the end of the current season of the Watermill’s online, interactive painting sessions, which have brought hundreds of people together to paint along with our inspiring tutors. We have participants from all over the world creating a truly international ‘virtual’ community of like-minded people enjoying an inspiring and relaxing time in each other’s company. We will be back with a new season in the autumn. But the last two sessions in March demonstrate the wide-ranging subjects we have tackled.
On 2 March 2023 Randy Hale invites you to paint along with him, making ‘People from Puddles’. You can register here. Randy explains: “Instead of one painting you’re going to do a couple of exercises painting people. You’ll experiment with making loose splatters of paint & water on your paper and then develop those splish-spash puddle patterns into crowds! It’s a loose abstract approach to creating figures with which to populate a painting. No pre-drawing or sketch is necessary. We’ll simply go where the water takes us."
He adds: “But you will ALSO do a second exercise in watercolor, this one capturing the interaction of mother and child up close and personal! For this, you WILL need to pre-sketch the two figures." An outline of the sketch will be provided when you register for the session.
(Left) Randy’s practice painting for your second exercise, entitled ‘wrapped up tight'
(Right) Harnessing the magic of watercolour
"Both exercises utilize the fluidity of watercolour as we create spontaneous reactions on the paper’s surface. Both approaches are interpretive and allow you to form your own emotional reaction. By allowing water to move pigment, react, bloom, and create glowing transparencies you harness the magic of watercolour!”
Randy’s online, interactive session will run on Thursday 2 March starting at 4pm UK time (GMT), which equates to 11.00am - East Coast USA; 10.00am - Central Time USA; 9.00am - Mountain Time USA; 8.00am - Pacific Coast Time USA.
Mike Willdridge’s final session of this Watermill online season takes us shopping in Vietnam with two bicycling ladies. You can register here.
Mike says: “The source photo was taken by me a few years ago in Hoi An (I think) and is quite a crowded scene. My painting is a more simplified response to the photo and it is this aspect that I’d like to emphasis... simplifying a busy market scene.
“These two ladies suggest a little narrative (are they friends, what might they be talking about etc?) and that, together with depicting the light and heat, will be your main challenges. The drawing of the two ladies and their bicycles is a little tricky so I suggest that part, at least, might be drawn before the session begins. I will, of course, allow time in my session for some drawing."
Mike will also show you during the session a further, simplified version, in a sketchbook.
(You won’t have to draw that quickly!)
Just a few of the paintings of
a busy street in Marrakech,
the subject of Mike’s last online session
Mike’s online, interactive session will run on Thursday 16 March starting at 4pm UK time (GMT), which equates to 11.00am - East Coast USA; 10.00am - Central Time USA; 9.00am - Mountain Time USA; 8.00am - Pacific Coast Time USA.
When you register for an online session, we will send you images of the scene and often a practice painting by the tutor to inspire you. We’ll also give you a link to a suggested materials list and colours for your palette.
After the session we will send you a link to an exclusive video that will enable to you revisit the step-by-step teaching. Many of our guests also send us pictures of their own efforts during the sessions and we set up a private gallery for the session so you will be able to see what everyone has achieved. If you post within the week then Randy/Mike will give you a short critique.
We are sure you will find the online, interactive sessions both illuminating and inspiring.
Happy painting!
Berthe Morisot, an all-time painting heroine
(Left) A detail from Edouard Manet’s vibrant portrait of Berthe Morisot 1872. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France. (Right) Berthe self-portrait. 1885, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, France
March is turning out to be a heroic month, what with asking you to tell us your favourite hero/heroine/couple (above) and the review of the top five literary heroes and heroines in the writing section (below). And here, it’s the turn of one of Bill’s artistic heroes Berthe Morisot. She was the focus of a recent article by Candy Bedworth, in the online DailyArt magazine. The picture left is a detail from the wonderful portrait of Morisot by her brother-in-law Édouard Manet, while Berthe’s own self-portrait is to the right.
Berthe was born into a rich, well-connected Parisian family in 1841, but despite the vibrancy of life in belle époque Paris, she was a prime example of the cliché of ‘a bird in a gilded cage’, largely confined by social mores to the domestic scene. Candy writes: “Her access to the outside world could only be mediated by her family. However, this challenge, of finding subjects and themes to paint created some of the most stunning images in art history. Morisot captured the informal domestic world of women”.
Portrait of Madame Hubbard, 1874,
Ordrupgaard, Copenhagen, Denmark
Nonetheless, with her mother’s support for her painting talent and with the family’s connections with key figures in the Parisian art scene, notably Édouard Manet and his brother Eugene, Berthe’s painting career flourished. She was admired by her contemporaries including Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Edward Dégas and she was at the very heart of the Impressionist movement. Candy Bedworth says: “Contrary to the white male art history narrative, Morisot was a powerful figure within the Impressionist group, not just a follower – she is the very essence of Impressionism. The Impressionists pioneered an unfinished, unpolished style. Their work was loose, natural, and full of light. Some critics speak of Morisot’s work as delicate and charming, even sweet – unsurprisingly, the male Impressionists weren’t described in that way!”
Berthe married Eugene Manet, who gave up his own painting career support her. Here is his portrait made in the Isle of Wight in 1875.
(Left) Eugene Manet on the Isle of Wight, 1875, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, France
(Right) Summer’s Day, 1878, National Gallery, London, UK
No less a figure than Camille Corot taught Berthe to paint el plein air, though such expeditions were often marred by public curiosity and discipline. The results, however, could be stunning:
There is much, much more about Berthe Morisot in the DailyArt magazine, which you can read by clicking here. We hope you enjoy learning more about this remarkable woman, another heroine of the Watermill month.
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
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
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
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
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
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
24 June – 1 July 2023 - two or three places 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
1 - 8 July 2023 - three places available
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
8 – 15 July 2023 - four or five places available
Watercolours
To learn more about Belinda and her course at the mill, please visit her 2023 Tutor Profile Page.
Mary Padgett
26 August - 2 September 2023 - one place 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
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
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
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
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
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.
These knitted socks are very strange indeed
The more you look at these socks, the oldest knitted items in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the more peculiar they seem. Can you imagine giving them to your friend at Christmas and seeing their face when they were unwrapped?
These strange socks were made in Egypt somewhere between 300 and 499 AD and excavated at the end of the 19th century. Their divided toe shows that they were designed to be worn with sandals. I can’t imagine that they were à la mode, even in ancient Egypt, but whoever made them put in a lot of effort doing so. They were knitted using three-ply wool in a single-needle stocking-stitch method. The V&A curators say, “This type of knitting is a slow technique more like sewing. It was a forerunner of the faster method of knitting using two or more needles.”
We can’t imagine anyone producing something quite like that, neither on the knitting courses run by fashionable designer Georgia Farrell who will be bringing rather more stylish special projects for our guests to knit, nor on our knitting retreat (where the participants bring their own projects), but Bill says if anyone does he will eat his hat, or rather wear their socks, for the cameras at least.
We still have a few places left on our knitting weeks and there are details and links below. Don’t forget that a Watermill knitting week knocks the socks off any other.
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.
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.
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.
Continuing this month heroes/heroines theme, Elaine Dodge has been having fun in the online magazine Writers Write, trying to identify the five best heroes and heroines in romance novels. She confesses: “As honesty is the best policy, I will state upfront that I am not a fan of contemporary romance stories. For me, romance is firmly in the past, so to fulfil the brief, and not rely solely on my own tastes, likes or dislikes, I decided to do a survey. I began with the heroes. I Google searched as many variations on the criteria as I could. I then did the same for the heroines.”
Interestingly, she reports that what you can come across any number of lists of the best romantic heroes there is “virtually nary a one for romantic heroines, historical or contemporary. Google doesn’t, apparently, rate females highly when it comes to ranking them in order of romantic heroines. There’s plenty of bad-ass, dangerous, supernatural heroines, but none listed as romantic."
The second interesting thing that Elaine found was that contemporary heroes “have to fight tooth and nail to get a toehold within the top five”
So here they are. First the top five heroes in romance novels, according to Google:
1. Fitzwilliam Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I know that fans of contemporary romantic fiction, who have read any of my blogs before, will cry foul. All I can say is ‘speak to the Google’.
2. Rhett Butler of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind. A step forward in time, and a completely different character to Mr Darcy.
3. Edward Fairfax Rochester of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Closer to Rhett Butler in some respects, but far more tortured.
4. Heathcliff of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Personally, I disagree with putting psychopaths as romantic heroes, but others, clearly, disagree.
Coming in neck-and-neck at number five were, apart from Mr Darcy, any hero created by either Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer. So, I decided to give other characters a chance. Even then, there was no clear winner. Fifth place goes jointly to:
5=. Gabriel Oak in Thomas Hardy’s Far from The Madding Crowd, Jamie Fraser in Diana Gabaldon’s The Outlander, John Thornton in Elizabeth Gaskell’s North And South, and Noah Calhoun in Nicholas Spark’s The Notebook.When it came to romantic heroines, as Elaine said earlier, Google was of little or no help, but one name that recurs in any list, without any challenges in sight, was:
1. Elizabeth Bennett in Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. I am trying, and failing, not to be smug about this as said book is one of my favourite romances of all time. It’s also why I searched Google. ‘Prove me wrong’, I cried. They couldn’t.
2. Jane Eyre in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. A choice with which I also agreed.
3. Sophia Stanton-Lacy in Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophie. Of all Georgette Heyer’s heroines, Sophia is the most modern.
4. Laura Hewitt of Valerie Fitzgerald’s Zemindar. A broken-hearted young woman in a strange land who, despite everything she has to endure, including the Indian Rebellion of 1857, is a true survivor and finds a love worthy of the name.
5. Lucy Waring of Madeleine Brent’s Moonraker’s Bride.A young girl who will do anything to save the starving children of a Chinese Mission. Of all the things that were to happen to turn her life around, marrying a man who is about to be executed was just the start.
Elizabeth, Jane and Sophy
What do you think? Who is your favourite literary hero/heroine? Let us know and enter our competition with a chance to win a free holiday for your partner when you book a creative week at the Watermill.
To recap, here is the way to enter: Please tell us in 100 words or less about your heroine/hero/couple, and send it to us using our Watermill Contact Form by clicking here. Select 'My Heroine/Hero' from the ‘message subject’ drop-down menu, fill in the form and email it to us. The adjudicators will be our Watermill writing tutor Jo Parfitt and Lois Breckon, La Padrona of the Watermill. As usual in the Parfitt and Breckon families, their final word will be law. The competition will end on 25 March 2023 and we should be able to announce a winner in time for our April newsletter.
The only writing course we have this year at the Watermill is Jo Parfitt’s Writing Your Life Stories, but it is fully booked at the moment. If you would like to come, don’t give up: there are often cancellations. Please get in touch via the Watermill Contact Form and we will put you on a waiting list.
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.
Punctuality is the politeness of Kings, but not with Italians
photo: Andrea Natali, Unsplash
Such is the Italian reputation for tardiness that Bill jokes that when a waiter or shopkeeper says ‘Arrivo subito’ (literally, ‘I am coming straight away’), it really means ‘See you Tuesday.’
That’s a little unfair, but the Italian generally do have a laid-back attitude to timekeeping.
An article in the online English-language newspaper The Local says: “There are plenty of unfair stereotypes about Italians, but when it comes to being chronically late for pretty much any type of social occasion, what you’ve heard is probably painfully accurate.
“Most Italians do have a peculiar notion of punctuality and being 15, 20 or even 30 minutes late for a social situation is generally seen as perfectly acceptable – much to the dismay of people from countries where lateness is viewed as rude or inconsiderate.
“We might never know why Italians’ internal clocks are apparently running behind – the consensus seems to be that it’s a reflection of the relaxed Italian lifestyle – but this lateness is so ingrained in Italian culture that it’s seen as normal and, as such, most will steer clear of giving precise meet-up times.”
So how do you cope with this Italian culturally ingrained phenomenon? We tend to arrive on time, which is no problem when the meeting place is a bar. It’s not great hardship sipping an aperitivo, watching the world go by as we wait.
*The Local article makes the point that Italian lateness really only applies to social occasions and not for formal meetings, at work, or with the doctor, bank manager or lawyer, for example. Even the Italians arrive for these meetings a little before time as The Local points out: “Lastly, no matter how frustrating you might find Italians’ tardiness, you might not want to tell them so. As being late for social occasions is a defining feature of Italian culture and is seen as the norm rather than as an anomaly, many people in the country won’t even think it necessary to apologise – and won’t appreciate any negative observations about their timekeeping.”
You will experience no such timekeeping problems on a Watermill creative course. Everything runs like clockwork: meals, transport -- and you will even be summoned by bells 7pm each evening for aperitivi under the vine verandah, before dinner at 7:30 pm sharp. (We don’t want to over-cook the pasta.)
The same on-time rules apply to our Italian language week, where you not only immerse yourself in the beautiful language, but also 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.
Soaking up the Italian
under the dappled shade of
the vine verandah
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.
A little light learning
in the evening sun in the walled garden
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.
The Watermill has teamed up again next year with Giulia, to produce a week in which you can learn Italian in the most natural and enjoyable way, helping you to treasure everything you learn and make it a seamless part of who you are.
As another 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.”
Our 2023 Italian Language course
Giulia 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.
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.
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.
With very best wishes a tutti
Lois and Bill Breckon