Dear Friend,
What’s the connection between the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and traditional stone-built Apulian houses with a conical roof?
In a perverse way, we are quite proud of that question, which truly must be near the top of the league for the most trivial of trivia questions. You will find the answer in our Bring a Partner section below.
December brings the second of our winter/spring series of Watermill interactive online sessions, this time with Randy Hale, who has taken an awesome clifftop view in the Acadia National Park in Maine, USA, as his subject. The session starts at 5pm (UK time) on Thursday 7 December. Please check the start time in your own time zone. There are details below and a link to register.
Our online sessions bring together hundreds of people from all over the world to paint along with some of our inspiring Watermill tutors. It’s a truly international ‘virtual community’ of like-minded people enjoying a creative and relaxing time in each other’s company. Why don’t you join them?
You can see the dates for the opening sessions by clicking on the online page of the Watermill website. If you cannot make the time, you can still register, and an edited video of the session will be available in the day or so after the session finishes, for you to paint along at home in your own time.
We’d love you to join us, both ‘virtually’ on our winter/spring online courses -- AND on our week-long residential creative courses this next year, in painting, creative writing, knitting and Italian language.
If you book one of our creative courses before the end of the year, you can also claim an Early Bird discount: £75 (GBP) off any 2024 creative course booked before 31 December 2023.
So, if you want to enjoy inspiring teaching, warm hospitality, a beautiful setting, spectacular locations, delicious food and wine, the convivial company of like-minded people AND an Early Bird discount, don’t delay, just get that reservation in. Already more than 210 people have signed up for next year’s creative courses, so it really is ‘Book Now to Avoid Disappointment! You can find all about everything on the Watermill’s website by clicking here.
Convivial Creativity.
The farewell show on our
last painting course this year, with Grahame Booth
Also in this edition:
- The leaning tower of Pisa, held up by feather, and a peculiar bouquet
- Details of Randy’s clifftop online interactive painting session
- Current availability of our 2024 courses
- It never rains...
- A magnificent chimera
The two pictures at the top of this introductory page are a magnificent Donatello terracotta plaque, recently purchased for the Bargello Museum in Florence (top left ) and (top right) the Donatello Room in the Bargello, with his bronze David at the front and his marble St George in the background: masterpieces of the early Renaissance. There’s more in the Watermill blog.
The two pictures below are Caravaggio’s Resting on the flight to Egypt, and an imposing room in the Doria Panfili palace/art gallery. There’s more in the Watermill blog.
Bring a partner: there's plenty for them to do
“Shall we go to the magical Watermill in our magic car?”
The Potts family and Truly Scrumptious aboard Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
(Dick Van Dyke, Anna Ripley, Adrian Hall and Sally Ann Howes
Your partner doesn'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.
(The answer to our trivia question is Truly and trulli, traditional houses with a conical roof, in Apulia, in the South of Italy.)
The leaning tower of Pisa, held up by feather, and a peculiar bouquet
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never before seen these two paintings, by the surrealist René Magritte. Perhaps it’s because they are in private collections.
The one of the left is called Memory of a Journey, and I found it in a recent article by Zuzanna Stanska in the online magazine DailyArt. Zuzanna says: “Depicting the leaning tower of Pisa “supported” by a feather, this painting is a remarkable example of the way in which Magritte’s art appropriates images from popular culture, and turns them into fantastic compositions.”
Of the painting on the right, The Prepared Bouquet, Magritte himself wrote: “Man is a visible apparition like a cloud, like a tree, like a house, like everything we see. I don’t deny his importance and neither do I accord him any pre-eminence in a hierarchy of the things that the world offers visually.”
Zuzanna has gathered together more than a dozen of Magritte’s disturbing, amusing and thought-provoking paintings and is well worth a 10 minute or so read over a cup of tea or coffee. You can see it by clicking here.
Rather more disturbing: Magritte’s Perspective II, Manet’s Balcony and Manet’s original The Balcony
Don’t miss out on that
Watermill discount
Don’t miss out on our Early Bird offer
As we said above, if you book one of our 2024 creative courses NOW, you can take advantage of our Early Bird offer: £(GBP) 75 off the cost of your course.
Already more than 180 people have signed up for next year’s creative courses, so it really is ‘Book Now to Avoid Disappointment'!
Randy Hale’s first interactive online subject is the awesome Otter Cliffs: from travel sketch to finished painting
Not only is Watermill tutor Randy Hale a superb painter, he is also a great writer, too, judging by the entry in his travel journal about the Otter Cliffs, Acadia National Park in Maine, USA. That’s his practice painting above for the scene.
And here’s his travel journal entry: “At that early morning hour the fog sat heavy, obscuring horizon in every direction. Hazy mist shrouded any sunlight. You could feel moisture in the air. Dew-coated rocks required careful navigation down a path thru trees and across exposed roots in order to reach the rocky cliffs.
“Once I emerged from the pine canopy out onto a rocky plateau, the view was startling. I moved swiftly across open rocky surfaces carefully watching where I stepped. Every direction was breathtaking.
“Rugged, sheer drop-offs of hundreds of feet pulled the eye down to roiling waves crashing over submerged rocks at the base of these steep precipices of granite. Gnarly trees clinging to rocky outcrops were testament to a constant onslaught of harsh Atlantic wind. Warm hues of granite up against cool darks of forest vegetation and exposed wet moss the low tide exposed, provided sharp dramatic contrast.
“The only noise at that hour was the constant rhythm of crashing waves and an occasional screech of gulls spiralling above the cliffs. Such stark and dangerous beauty of raw nature made me feel very small as I stood out on the edge looking down."
Come and listen to Randy waxing lyrical about his subject and paint these awe-inspiring cliffs along with him on 7 December 2023. (Details and a link below.)
Not only will Randy show you how to make the best finished painting from travel sketches, he also has tips on how to capture the momentin those sketches. Randy says: “The objective is to produce a finished composition which maximizes dramatic impact of the location as you recall it!”
Randy’s tips:
- Work quickly to absorb the location from various angles — take a series of reference photos.
- Do a few thumbnail sketches — make a loose watercolor sketch in your travel journal to capture the mood, atmosphere, and lighting.
- Make some notes in the margins of your impressions.
- Once you return to your studio, pull everything together; arrange photos so you can look across all of them, including your sketches.
- Decide on best format (landscape or portrait) to achieve the greatest dramatic effect - it may differ from your original travel journal sketch.
- Make adjustments. Don’t be afraid to edit or rearrange objects to achieve a composition with maximum impact.
- From all the reference material assembled, decide how best to communicate the atmospheric and emotional response experienced while you were there on site, in that moment of discovery!
The preliminary drawing
for the Randy’s session
Unlike many online painting tutors, Randy 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, step-by-step what he has shown you. Randy will demonstrate a tip or technique for only a few minutes before you start painting the same subject at home. Then, after you have had your turn, they will move on to the next part of the process. Lois will be on hand to feed your questions. The session will last two or three hours. (Randy asks you to make your own preliminary drawing before the session starts.)
Once you have registered you will be provided with two links. The first is the Zoom link for you to join the session, The second link is where you can download a source photograph of the scene that Randy has chosen for you, his practice painting to show you where you are heading, a preliminary drawing, and a list of materials (including paper, paint and brushes) that he suggests you may need for the session.
After the event, you are invited to add your painting to the gallery and to view paintings by fellow students. Randy will give a short critique of every painting that is posted within seven days of the end of the session. We will also send you a link to a video within 48 hours of the end of the session, that will enable to you revisit Randy’s step-by-step teaching.
Here are the data and the date for Randy’s online interactive painting session:
7 December 2023
Randy Hale
Otter Cliffs. Acadia National Park, Maine, USA.
Capture the moment: from travel sketch to finished painting
To register, please click here.
Start time:
- 6 pm Florence, Italy
- 5 pm London, UK (Greenwich Mean Time, GMT)
- Noon from Maine to Florida, USA<
- 10 am in Denver (Mountain Time Zone) USA
- 9 am from Los Angeles to Seattle, USA
(But please double check the start time in your own time zone compared with GMT.)
When you have painted with Randy online, why not join him for real at the Watermill in Tuscany Italy next summer? We would love to welcome you here.
Randy Hale
8 - 15 June 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolour
To learn more about Randy and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
*** At present, Randy’s course is fully booked, but there are often cancellations, so if you’re keen to come please get in touch via the Watermill’s Contact Form and we’ll put you on a waiting list.
Our inspiring, exhilarating (and relaxing), painting courses in 2024
Carl March
20-27 April 2024 - 5 or 6 places left
Drawing and watercolours en plein air
To learn more about Carl and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Maggie Renner Hellmann
25 May - 1 June 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
‘Colourful & Expressive Oil & watercolour’ (also Travel sketching, acrylics, and pastel)
To learn more about Maggie and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Randy Hale
8 - 15 June 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolour
To learn more about Randy and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Keiko Tanabe
15 - 22 June 2024 - still plenty of places
Watercolours
To learn more about Keiko and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Michael Solovyev **NEW WATERMILL TUTOR**
22 - 29 June 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
‘Atmospheric Landscape in Watercolour: Studio/Plein Air’
To learn more about Michael and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Paul Talbot-Greaves
29 June – 6 July 2024 - 1 place left
Watercolour
To learn more about Paul and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Yong Chen **NEW WATERMILL TUTOR**
6 - 13 July 2024 - 3 or 4 places left
Watercolour
To learn more about Yong and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Sue Ford
13 – 20 July 2024
Watercolours - 4 or 5 places left
To learn more about Sue and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Fiona Graham Mackay
17 - 24 August 2024 - still plenty of places
Painting en plein air (oil, acrylic, watercolour and pastel)
To learn more about Fiona and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Pamme Turner
24 - 31 August 2024 - still plenty of places
Watercolour and gouache
To learn more about Pamme and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Mike Willdridge
7 - 14 September 2024 - 2 places left
Watercolour and drawing (also gouache and acrylics)
To learn more about Mike and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Rebecca de Mendonça
14 - 21 September 2024 - 4 or 5 places left
Pastels
To learn more about Rebecca and her course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Tim Wilmot
28 September - 5 October 2024 - 2 places left
Watercolours
To learn more about Tim and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Grahame Booth
5 - 12 October 2024 - 2 places left
Watercolours
To learn more about Grahame and his course at the mill, please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
“If only I’d spent a week on a Watermill knitting course, I’d have finished ages ago!”
Lois started knitting this wonderful Fair Isle cardigan (design by Watermill knitting tutor Marie Wallin) as a Christmas present for one of our daughters a few years ago – and, despite returning to it from time to time, she’s still not done! To be fair, she has been busy through the summer seasons looking after Watermill guests and in the Winter, running the Watermill business and completing her Doctorate in Music.
She says: “If only I’d spent a week on a Watermill knitting course, I’d have finished this project ages ago!”
Yes, the renowned and inspirational tutors on Watermill knitting courses each bring a unique project or two for their students to knit during their week as our guests. Nothing is complicated as a Fair Isle cardigan, it must be confessed but projects include, for example, a beautiful colour-work cowl, inspired by the Tuscan countryside surrounding the Watermill, and other items like hats, shawls and gloves, with bead-work, intarsia, cable etc.
Our inspiring knitting tutors in 2024
You will see from the list below that many of the 2024 knitting courses already fully booked, but don’t despair, there are often cancellations, so if you’re doing a particular tutor, or, particular date, please get in touch via the Watermill’s Contact Form and we’ll put you on a waiting list.
Susan Crawford **NEW WATERMILL TUTOR**
27 April - 4 May 2024 - 4 or 5 places left
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Susan and her course at the mill, please visit her 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Norah Gaughan
4 - 11 May 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Norah and her course at the mill, please visit her 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Louisa Harding
11 - 18 May 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Louisa and her course at the mill, please visit her 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Debbie Abrahams
18 - 25 May 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Debbie and her course at the mill, please visit her 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Sylvia Watts-Cherry **NEW WATERMILL TUTOR**
1 - 8 June 2024 - fully booked, waiting list open
Knitting and La Bella Vita
To learn more about Sylvia and her course at the mill, please visit her 2024 Tutor Profile 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 courses, as well as a generous £GBP 250 discount if they share a room with you.
“In head and shoulders, she was like a lion, in back and tail, a snake, and in the middle, a she-goat, and she breathed a dreadful blast of blazing fire.”
The chimera is awesome from any angle. (Right) Note the hole in her side
All photos: Sailko. Wiki Commons. Public domain
We are subscribers to the Merriam-Webster dictionary’s online Word of the Day, a fun way to learn new words and reinforce your knowledge, of others. A recent word was chimera, a monster in Greek mythology, defined above by a man with a way with words, the immortal Homer, no less.
Merriam-Webster tells us: “The Chimera terrorized the people of Lycia until slain by the hero Bellerophon, but the beast lived on in people’s imaginations, and English speakers adopted her name for any monster similarly composed of the parts of different animals. Later,chimeratook on another meaning that is common in today’s lexicon: ‘an illusion of the mind, especially an unrealized dream. This sense ofchimerais often used to refer to a fantasy or delusion.”
The Word of the Day reminded us of a wonderful encounter with a chimera we had a year or so back, or rather, with an extraordinary 2,500-years-old bronze Etruscan statue of the awesome beast, in the Archaeological Museum in Florence. It is extraordinary not only in the artistic achievement, but it in the technical skill of its anonymous creator(s) in the fourth century BCE.
The Chimera of Arezzo is an Etruscan bronze, a votive offering to a pagan god, a belligerent two-headed monster (three if you count the snake’s head on the end of her sinuous tail) baying defiance to the world in general, and Greek heroes in particular. Her nemesis was Bellerophon, on his winged horse Pegasus. Because of her scorching breath, Bellerophon was unable to defeat the chimera in normal combat so, like all good Greek heroes, he resorted to a trick: loading the tip of his spear with a lump of lead, he thrust it into the monster’s mouth. The chimera’s fiery breath melted the lead and she suffocated.
Her bronze incarnation is majestically alive. Slightly less than six feet long and a little more the four feet tall, the chimera has the face of a lion, with a horned goat’s head growing out of her back. Although she has apparently already been injured by Bellerophon (a hole in her left rump may be a wound from his spear), she is still defiant. Her bronze main bristles with belligerence and we can see beneath the skin’s surface the sinews are stiffened for action. Her spiky claws have emerged from their pads and her jaw is opened wide in an aggressive snarl.
This chimera was discovered, in bits, in 1553 in Arezzo, and was apparently a votive offering to the Etruscan god Tinia. The bronzes were rapidly commandeered by Cosimo I, the Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany. (Because it was in pieces, and bits were missing, the chimera was originally thought to be a lion and thus, a representation of ducal power and it was displayed in the Palazzo Vecchio.) The smaller bits and pieces went to Cosimo’s studiolo in the Palazzo Pitti, where, as reported in Benvento Cellini’s autobiography, the Grand Duke delighted in cleaning them himself with goldsmiths’ tools.
After a little detective work, the Renaissance polymath Giorgio Vasari correctly identified the main sculpture as a chimera, but the tail was not restored until the 1780s, when the serpent’s head was incorrectly placed biting one of the goat’s horns. It is much more likely that it, too, was hissing defiance at Bellerophon.
Whatever interpretations we may put on the meaning of the sculpture, either in Greek iconography or in representation of Medici power, it above all this is a stunning piece of art, both aesthetically and technically. It was created by unknown hands some 1800 years before the Renaissance, but it is a worthy companion to the works of genius that were created in Florence from the 15th century onwards. And what a Word of the Day!
If you’d like to write your own words of the day in historic Italy, you could do no better than to join Joe Parfitt on her Writing Your Life Stories week-long course at the Watermill. We still have a few places left.
Jo Parfitt is an author, journalist, teacher, blogger, conference speaker and poet. She has published 32 books herself, has helped more than 250 authors get into print and more than 2,000 people to begin writing. Jo's a compassionate, inspiring, and encouraging teacher: her motto is 'sharing what I know to help others to grow'.
The Write Your Life Stories creative writing course is designed to help you produce your best work, to find your true writer's 'voice' and to write authentically. Among other things, you’ll discover the secret of SPICE, the seven steps to writing life stories. Jo says: "The course at the watermill will provide a safe haven in which to unlock your creativity, write from your heart and hone your writing craft. You will be empowered to write in a compelling way, bringing your experiences to life."
Enjoying creative conviviality
on Jo’s watermill writing course
The workshop will include several methods and genres and is perfect for anyone wanting to write about their own lives for an effective journal, memoir or blog. If you would enjoy an injection of inspiration in a calm and supportive environment, this course is for you. It is appropriate for students of any level.
Here are some comments from guests on Jo’s previous courses at the Watermill: “The most magical trip to Tuscany, which will stay with me forever!” “It is a very special and beautiful place, and everything was organised so perfectly. Jo is a great tutor, and we all had an amazing time.”
Jo Parfitt
21 – 28 September 2024 - 5 or 6 places left
Write your life stories
To learn more about Jo and her course at the mill, please visit please visit the 2024 Tutor Profile Page.
Why it never rains but it pours could be good news in Italian
Our creative courses at the Watermill are seldom interrupted for long by bad weather. It may rain for a couple of hours in the morning or afternoon, but it usually clears up quite quickly – and, anyway, we have plenty of ‘Plan Bs’ up our sleeves to provide exciting alternatives in attractive venues out of the rain.
But when it does rain, Tuscan weather can be quite dramatic, with thunder rumbling around the hills and the rain coming down like stair rods. The Italians say: Piovando sul bagnato,’ literally, ‘It’s raining on the soaked.’ Or, in a more felicitous translation: “It never rains but it pours.”
And, just as in English, the phrase can be used when one set of bad news follows another. In Italian, however, you might also use piovando sul bagnato to express the thought that good news may often follow good news.
As The Local, the online English-language Italian newspaper, puts it: “In modern Italian, the saying is used to indicate that unpleasant events or, on the contrary, pleasant ones, happen to those who are already experiencing enough of them.” So, it might be translated into English as: “Fortune favours the fortunate.”
We seem to remember some dire Old Testament verse saying something like: “The Lord giveth to those who have and taketh away from those who have not.” But, further research in the Book of Job reveals that the verse merely says: “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,” a phrase often used in funeral services.
Source: quickmeme online
But that is by the by: on the Watermill creative courses we are wholly in the ‘giveth’ business. Especially our unique Italian language course.
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 we 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 tutor Giulia Balestri for a week in which people can learn Italian in the most natural and enjoyable way. Your immersion into the language and culture of real Italians will be customised for you, to suit your curiosity and your interests, helping you to treasure everything you learn and make it a seamless part of who you are.
Soaking up the Italian language and the evening sun in the Watermill walled garden
Next year’s course will be from Saturday 12 October to Saturday 19 October 2024.
Here are comments from previous participants:
"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. For a teacher to be ‘on duty’ from 8.30am until bedtime - teaching us in each situation - must have been exhausting yet she kept her sense of fun throughout. The accommodation was great and the camaraderie which evolved was, I'm sure, due to your relaxed and welcoming approach to your guests."
"I had a wonderful time on the language course and laughed so much! Our tutor was fantastic and designed a course that we could all follow at our own level, complete beginners to slightly more than complete beginners. There was lots of role play and games in Italian, like "Who am I?" and "Battleships". We had plenty of opportunity to talk to local Italians in cafes and the market in Fivizzano. We learned how to buy things in the market, order food and drink and ask directions. I feel confident to travel round Italy and know that I could find accommodation, buy food, drink and other items, travel on trains or hire bikes. My confidence and knowledge has improved immensely over the week and our tutor has even sent us exercises to do at home to keep our learning going. She was tireless and gave us so much."
Giulia Balestri
19 - 26 October 2024 - still plenty of places
Learning Italian with the Italians
For more details on Giulia's 2024 course, please visit the 2024 Tutor programme page.
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