Yes, the roses in the Watermill's walled garden are looking particularly fine this year, which prompted our social media factotum Gina Shearston to celebrate with the new Facebook cover picture above. For all the Watermill views and news, please just click here. We still have a few places left on our 2023 creative courses and we would love you to join us. The latest 2023 is shown below. (Don't Continue Reading
Benvenuti We would love to welcome you to our unique Italian language course this October
We would like to welcome you to our unique Italian language course this October: We still have a few places left. This is an Italian language course with a difference. Not only are there formal lessons in the garden on the vine verandah (some 20 hours in the week), but you also make trips and excursions to savour the natural beauty of Lunigiana, the area around the mill, to explore its history Continue Reading
And so farewell…
...to the inspirational and indefatigable Pamme Turner and our Watermill guests after another tremendous painting week at the Watermill. We had many days of sunshine interspersed with fierce Tuscan showers, but were still able to paint outdoors every day under the blue Italian sky. And a special vote of thanks to Pamme’s husband Todd Glenn, for his unstinting help with everything from Continue Reading
A horse and carriage ride in Lucca, organised by two enterprising Watermill painting course guests
In the main squares of the beautiful city of Lucca, one of the destinations on our Wednesday excursions during our creative course weeks, no lonely cab horse steams and stamps, but occasionally you will see an open horse-drawn carriage clip-clopping through the historic streets. We never knew where they came from until last Wednesday when two enterprising guests on a Watermill painting Continue Reading
If you don’t want anyone to see you sketching, join a crowd! And capture the moment
Mike Willdridge, old friend and Watermill tutor, always urges you to carry a sketchbook with you wherever you go. His motto is ‘Work quickly, catch the moment,’ but he is aware that some people become self-conscious if they are seen at work on their sketchbook. Mike says: “If don’t want to be seen drawing, you’re often safest in a crowd! “ All the four drawings above were made in Sorrento, in Continue Reading
Learning from the maestra
Here is a cute little video of tutor Pamme Turner sharing some of the secrets of successful watercolours with our guests on a painting course this week. What a wonderful way to spend your day before venturing out to paint en plein air and sample some delicious food and a traditional Italian trattoria. La vita e bella. Continue Reading
Another knitting week to remember
We have just had two sparkling TripAdvisor reviews for Georgia Farrell’s knitting holiday a week or so ago. Both of the participant have been several times before. One, from Chichester in England, writes: “This was a return visit and, as on previous visits, it didn’t disappoint (apart from the weather). The course itself, which was led by Georgia Farrell, had just the right balance of tuition, Continue Reading
The memories linger on, continued…
We have said it before, and we will say it again: the experiences of a Watermill creative week don’t just last the seven days that you are here, but the memories linger on and on. Take the case of Mary Jane Cooley, who came on a painting course in May a year ago. She emailed us this week: “I spent last week fondly reliving my visit to your beautiful home away from home and the connections I Continue Reading
A study in creative concentration
One picture, they say (whoever they may be), is worth a thousand words, and certainly this picture of Diane Ohnemus, a guest on Pamme Turner’s painting week, says more than many paragraphs could do about the joys of creative concentration while painting in the Watermill walled garden. Your cares slip away and all you have to do is focus on capturing on paper the beauty of your surroundings. Relax Continue Reading
Another creative and convivial painting week
Our thanks to all our guests and our tutor Randy Hale for another creative and convivial painting week at the Watermill. Despite the weather not being of its best, we managed to see all the local sights of which we are so proud – castle and convent, market and mountains, seaside and city – and produced a prodigious amount of art, as we saw at the group’s farewell exhibition (suitably accompanied Continue Reading