Dear Friend,
Christmas greetings from the Watermill and our very best wishes for a happy holiday
and a healthy and creative New Year
We are already looking forward to our creative courses at Posara in 2019, where we have no fewer than 21 painting weeks, creative writing courses, knitting weeks and an Italian language week.
No plastic ducks in the bath
at the Watermill!
We’re also working through the winter months to make the Watermill ‘greener’, with new photovoltaic panels to capture sunlight and convert it to electricity, in which we now hope to be self-sufficient. We’re also working further to reduce our use of plastic, notably in our water bottles. And we are planning further improvements in our communal dining room and sitting room, which you will have to come and see for yourselves!
We'd love you to join us, but if you want to do so, you’ll have to hurry. We’ve never had so many early bookings for Watermill creative courses: as we go to press nearly 220 people have already signed up for 2019. Since we have capacity for only 250 or so guests on our creative courses, we are pretty full already. If you’d like to join us, please have a look at the availability details on all our courses below.
You'll have to hurry
to be a Watermill Early Bird
Our Early Bird offer ends at the end of the year, so if you’d like to have a place on any of the courses, you’ll have to get your reservation in quickly!
If there is a course you particularly want to come on and it’s already full, please let us know anyway. There are often cancellations and will put you on a waiting list and tell you immediately if a space comes up.
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this newsletter which, given the time of year, is appropriately fun and festive. We’ve eschewed pictures of cuddly kittens and robins on holly branches, but we thought we’d share some amusing moments and anecdotes with you and we begin with the pictures above and below this introduction.
The picture top left shows Mike Willdridge’s hat, but not Mike Willdridge! The hat is providing shade for a sunflower head, plucked from the riverside by our gardener Flavio Terenzoni. To the right you can see pastellist Nel Whatmore showing just how much she enjoys getting her hands dirty when engaged in her craft. Below left, Watermill guest Emily Muhlberger jumps for joy during a painting course, while below right another guest, Polly Mosely, enjoys an unexpected kiss from tutor Sandra Strohschein’s husband Keith.
In this month’s newsletter there are also stories on:
- Famous couples and the Watermill
- Forbidden fruit
- The advantages of simple origami and a bubbly talk
- Driven to abstraction
- Shedding new light on ancient Florence
Happy reading...
ß
We know there are three of them,
but we couldn't resist the octopus
Bring a partner: there’s plenty for them to do
Why not bring your friend or partner? 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.
Famous couples and the Watermill
We have been having a lot of fun recently with our Watermill newsletters, where we always have a paragraph urging you to bring your partner to join you on one of our creative courses. We seek out pictures of famous couples and make up our own captions -- and we thought we’d share a few of the latest ones with you. Sorry about the threesome above, but I’m sure that Hugh Grant and Martine McCutcheon will understand that the octopus was irresistible.
Here are some other couples we’ve called up from time to time.
Right Couple: Cheer up! Let's go to the Watermill!
Left Couple: Let's go to the Watermill. We won't need our furs!
That’s the Duke and Duchess of Urbino right, as painted by Piero della Francesca. And Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, left, as Dr Zhivago and Lara, looking a little chilly.
Our encouragement to bring your partner or friend will double your pleasure, and there’s plenty for them to do while you are enjoying your painting, creative writing, knitting or Italian language course. We offer a range of Alternative activities for partners, as well as a generous £250 discount if they share a room with you. We think they’ll be amused:
Left Couple: Bogie might have said to Ingrid: We'll always have Posara!
Right Couple: Albert & Victoria - Yes, we would be amused by a week at the Watermill
But seriously... Do come as a twosome and double your delights on a Watermill creative course. You can leave the octopus at home.
Forbidden fruit: don’t try to eat it!
We call this ‘conceptual artefact’ Forbidden Fruit and you can see it in the Watermill sitting room along with all the wonderful paintings made by our inspiring tutors.
What’s it all about?
Well...We had the wooden bananas first, in Scotland, two yellow ‘ripe’ ones and one green one. We didn’t really know what to do with them and we worried that, were they on show, someone might try to eat them. So why not display them under glass, as the Victorians did with their butterflies and stuffed birds?
But the bananas looked a little lonely in their glass case, so we got in touch with the delightful English wood turner Barry Charnley and asked him to provide more fruit to keep them company.
He also produced an apple with teeth-marks, which could only have been made by a wooden boy: Pinocchio, of course. (The young man denied this, but when confronted, his nose grew and grew...)
Come and see our forbidden fruit for yourself, but don’t try to eat it. We’d love to welcome you on one of our fun-filled, sun-filled, inspiring courses where you can make your own creative artefacts, whether they are painted, written or knitted!
Creased up with laughter...
Bill’s been chuckling at a lovely one-liner he heard on BBC Radio 4 recently: The advantages of simple origami are two-fold.
Oh! And if you are in a bubbly mood can we recommend this fascinating TED talk, which ends with a sip of champagne? The speaker’s enthusiasm for bubbles is infectious. Just click here to see it.
Driven to abstraction
Our friend and enthusiastic Watermill painting tutor Mike Willdridge will soon be completing his self-imposed task of producing 100 paintings in 100 days. That’s number 89 (right).
Mike says: “For a long time I’ve enjoyed looking at abstract art and wanted to move in that direction myself, but I found it difficult to leave my representational style. Now that I have given up most of my teaching (except at the Watermill!), I’ve found a renewed energy towards abstraction.”
The artistic road has been an exciting one and we’ve been looking at Mike’s wonderful pictures every day on his Facebook page (Mike Willdridge), on Instagram (@mikewilldridge) and on his website (www.mikewilldridge-artist.com).
We liked his pictures so much that we have bought four of them, including this one, which was painted on Lois’ birthday in November.
You can see our collection if you join us for one of our creative courses next year. And if you come in early July, you will be able to meet the artist himself.
You don’t have to go abstract to enjoy Mike’s course: he is a wonderful tutor and paints realistic landscapes and sketching your surroundings. He will be with us again next year, for a week in watercolour and drawing (also gouache and acrylics), from Saturday 29 June to Saturday 6 July 2019.
A sketch of the market
in Fivizzano
by Mike Willdridge
Mike Willdridge works in a wide range of media and is an enthusiastic and energetic tutor, often 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.
A comment from a guest on one of Mike’s previous courses at The Watermill: “A wonderful holiday. You were such generous and friendly hosts and Mike was an excellent painting tutor.” Another said: “The food was exceptional and the mill itself is great, in such a beautiful setting. A truly wonderful week in every respect.”
Be an early bird!
Don’t forget our enticing Early Bird offer: if you book any one of our fun-filled, sun-filled, inspiring holidays before 31 December 2018 there is a £75 GBP (about $100) discount. What are you waiting for? Come and join us!
Tutor of the month: Jude Scott -- enjoying new challenges
Over the years we’ve welcomed a number of very talented Australian artists to the Watermill: Terry Jarvis, Charles Sluga and David Taylor among them. And we are proud now to welcome Jude Scott to join the Watermill Antipodean team!
Jude, from Western Australia, has been painting and teaching for many years. The picture right is a detail from one of her paintings of orchids. She will be with us for not one, but two inspiring courses in watercolours (and acrylics and oils), from Saturday 17 August to Saturday 24 August 2019 and from Saturday 24 August to Saturday 31 August 2019.
Jude tells us that she loves watercolours for “their immediacy, unpredictability, translucency, dazzling colours and powerful tones,” but she also paints in, and is happy to teach in, acrylics and oils. She says: “I love a new challenge and paint all subjects – faces, florals, boats and landscapes.” Here is another watercolour of hers, below, of Winter roses from her garden, with a favourite little Chinese teapot.
As for teaching, Jude says: “I love sharing what I have learnt over many years of painting and it is always a thrill watching ‘the artist within’ emerge from each individual student. I strongly encourage students to develop their own unique style of brush strokes and mark making: just relax, be brave, don’t forget to breathe and the rest will surely follow.”
One of her previous students said: “Jude was truly amazing, great tempo, strong knowledge base, strong interpersonal skills, just the right mix of doing and listening.” And another added :“She catered for the individual, encouraging a personal approach of expression, whilst at the same time teaching sound techniques. Her outgoing and bright personality really made her classes fun.”
We have already six bookings for Jude’s first week (17-24 August 2019), two of whom are non-painting partners, so we have room for seven or eight more painters. Due to a cancellation, we currently have one place available for Jude’s second week (24-31 August 2019). It’s yours for the taking! And don’t forget that Early Bird offer of £75 GBP off this course if you book before the end of this year.
Our enticing 2019 painting holidays
As you will see below, we still have spaces on many of our inspiring painting courses next year. Some of our tutors, however, are already fully booked. If you would particularly like to come on one of those courses, please let us know and we will put you on the waiting list. There are often cancellations. On the other hand, to be sure of a place on a Watermill painting course, why not choose one of our other inspiring tutors where there are still places?
Here’s the 2019 painting team .....
Paul Talbot-Greaves
27 April to 4 May 2019 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolours
To learn more about Paul and his course at the mill, please visit his 2019 Profile Page.
Keiko Tanabe
18 - 25 May 2019 - still one or two places
Watercolours
To learn more about Keiko and her course at the mill, please visit her 2019 Profile Page.
Sandra Strohschein
1 - 8 June 2019 - fully booked, waiting list open
8 - 15 June 2019 - fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolours
To learn more about Sandra and her course at the mill, please visit her 2019 Profile Page.
Vicki Norman
22 - 29 June 2019 - fully booked, waiting list open
Oils en plein air
To learn more about Vicki and her course at the mill, please see our 2019 Courses Preview page.
Mike Willdridge
29 June - 6 July 2019 - still three or four places
Watercolours and drawing (also gouache and acrylics with an emphasis on sketching and drawing on location)
To learn more about Mike and his course at the mill, please visit his 2019 Profile Page.
Sue Ford
13 - 20 July 2019 - still three or four places
Watercolours, pastels, collage and mixed media plus acrylics
To learn more about Sue and her course at the mill, please visit her 2019 Profile Page.
Jude Scott
17 - 24 August 2019 - still four or five places
24 - 31 August 2019 - still one place
Watercolours (plus acrylics and oils)
To learn more about Jude and her course at the mill, please visit her 2019 Profile Page.
Varvara Neiman
31 August - 7 September 2019 - still four or five places
Water-based oils, acrylics and watercolours
To learn more about Varvara and her course at the mill, please visit her 2019 Profile Page.
Claire Warner
14 - 21 September 2019 - still four or five places
Watercolours, oils and acrylics
To learn more about Claire and her course at the mill, please visit her 2019 Profile Page.
Maggie Renner Hellmann
21 - 28 September 2019 - fully booked, waiting list open
Courageous Color Workshop' in oils, acrylics, pastels and watercolors
To learn more about Maggie and her course at the mill, please visit her 2019 Profile Page.
Charles Sluga
28 September - 5 October 2019 - still one or two places
Watercolours, acrylics and oils
To learn more about Charles and his course at the mill, please visit his 2019 Profile Page.
Tim Wilmot
5 - 12 October 2019 - still one place
Watercolours
To learn more about Tim and his course at the mill, please visit his 2019 Profile Page.
David Taylor
12 - 19 October 2019 - still four or five places
Watercolours
To learn more about David and his course at the mill, please visit his 2019 Profile Page.
Our Summer painter in residence,
Sandra Strohschein
Come and join us and enjoy the magic at the mill!
*** Why not bring your non-painting partner as well?
There’s a generous £250 discount for him/her if they share a room with you - and there’s plenty for them to do. Have a look at our Partner’s Activities Page for suggestions.
Use the 2019 painting programme link below to view the list of our inspiring 2019 painting tutors.
Memories of Sarah’s knitting weeks at the Watermill
We made a little slideshow to try that to capture the atmosphere of Sarah Hazell‘s relaxing and inspiring knitting weeks at the Watermill. You can see it by clicking here.
Sarah’s course next year will run from 4 to 11 May 2019. We’d love you to join us.
Sarah’s main project for the week is in response to feedback from our previous guests. She says: “I am aware that lots of knitters want to understand how they can alter an existing pattern to get a better fit. I’ve devised a project to do just that.” Sarah’s project will show you how to make a simple garment to fit your size and body shape, based on one of Sarah’s most successful designs, the Phoebe Poncho. She says: “This is a relaxing knit that will help you to acquire some technical expertise along the way!”
Sarah explains: “This will involve recording measurements, making decisions about sleeve and body length, selecting a stitch pattern and working on a neckline. The project is worked from side to side with a simple moss (seed) stitch border with front and back alike. The shoulders are then seamed and stitches picked up in the round for the funnel neck. You will have the opportunity to select your own stitch pattern for the body of the garment. I will also be talking to you about the best way to finish and block your project. We will be working with a cotton mix aran and you will each receive 8 x 100g balls in a colour of your choice. The accompanying notes will have general tips on how to alter the fit of a knitted garment for future use.”
We call Sarah’s week Knitting and La Bella Vita and you will have a relaxing holiday in the beautiful Tuscan countryside, with leisurely knitting days, wonderful food and wine, as well as learning new skills from Sarah. We have nine people booked for Sarah’s course, one of whom is a non-knitting partner, so we have room for three or four more knitters. There are dates and links below.
Our exciting knitting holidays: the 2019 line-up
Sarah Hazell
4 - 11 May 2019 - still three or four places
Knitting and La Dolce Vita
To learn more about Sarah and her knitting week at the mill, please visit her 2019 Profile Page.
Debbie Abrahams
25 May - 1 June 2019 - fully booked, waiting list open
Knitting and La Dolce Vita
To learn more about Debbie and her knitting week at the mill, please visit her 2019 Profile Page.
Marie Wallin
6 - 13 July 2019 - fully booked, waiting list open
Knitting and La Dolce Vita
To learn more about Marie and her knitting week at the mill, please visit her 2019 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, writing or yoga.
We offer them a range of Alternative activities for partners on all our 2019 courses, as well as a generous £GBP 250 discount if they share a room with you.
A safe haven for writers
Writing honestly can be emotionally tough, particularly if you are trying to write about your own life’s experiences. As you dig deep into what happened to you and what it means to you, you will find it engenders both laughter and tears. Catharsis releases strong emotions, some of which may have been repressed for years. But looking at your experiences honestly and writing them down, not only brings relief but also creative satisfaction.
This is the reason why the combination of tutor Jo Parfitt and the grounds of the Watermill are so important. You will write, and discuss your writing, under the shade of the vine verandah in the Watermill's beautiful walled garden, a safe haven away from the hustle and bustle of the world.
There’s a short slideshow which tries to capture the ambience of our Watermill creative writing courses. You can see it by clicking here.
Jo Parfitt is an author, journalist, teacher, blogger, conference speaker and poet. She has published 32 books herself, has helped more than 100 authors get into print and more than 1,000 people to begin writing. She’s an inspiring, compassionate and encouraging teacher: her motto is ‘sharing what I know to help others to grow’.
Jo says: “One of the reasons for the great success of our Watermill Writing Your Life Stories course is that there are clear boundaries. 
Not only are you living in a defined location within grounds of the Watermill and the village of Posara, which gives you physical boundaries, but being with a group of people all joined together in a common purpose makes you feel psychologically safe in that environment too.
“That’s why on these courses people feel they are able to share their experiences, why they bond so well and why they find the courage to write about tough stuff.”
Jo adds: “That is why I am now such an advocate of the residential writing course. And that is why I am delighted to be returning to Posara for another Writing Your Life Stories courses this year. It’s true: a residential writing course reaches the places other courses cannot reach”.
Our enriching 2019 Writing courses
Jo Parfitt
15 – 22 June 2019 - still plenty of places
Write Your Life Stories
To learn more about Jo and her course at the mill, please visit her 2019 Profile Page.
Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran
7 - 14 September 2019 - still plenty of places
To learn more about Laurence and Maurice and to register an interest in their course at the mill, please visit their 2019 Profile Page.
Fiat lux: the Florence Light Festival
Florence is one of the most alluring cities in the world at any time of year. But in December we also have the Florence Light Festival, where new amazing lights brighten historic centre of the city. So, we are enjoying the old familiar attractions in a different light. If you’d like to see a short video about last year’s light festival, please click here.
Our Italian Language course at the Watermill sheds light on the beauty of the Italian language, but we’re sorry to have to tell you that currently it is fully booked. There may however be cancellations and if you’re keen to come, please let us know and we’ll put you on the waiting list.
Our engaging 2019 language course
Langues services and Francesca la Sala
11 - 18 May 2019 - fully booked, waiting list open
Italian language
To learn more about Francesca and her 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, 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.
Become a Friend of The Watermill at Posara
Visit our Friends Website (Link below). Just follow the instructions to Register as a Friend and then Log In to enjoy special privileges. If you become a ‘Friend’ (it will cost you nothing) you’ll enjoy many exclusive benefits, including dozens of practical and inspiring tips from our international painting and creative writing tutors and recipes from the watermill’s mouth-watering menus. And there will be exclusive offers for Friends to make our courses and holidays even more attractive.
We very much look forward to welcoming you to the mill and, in the meantime, the warmest seasonal greetings to all our readers, wherever you may be in the world.
With very best wishes a tutti
Lois and Bill Breckon