The Watermill creative courses this year are filling fast, but we still have a few places left if you would like to join us for inspiring tuition, warm hospitality, stunning scenery, delicious food and wine and the convivial company of like-minded people. Now is the time to make your reservation. If you see a week that you particularly like the look of and it is fully booked, don’t despair: there Continue Reading
It’s the first day of Spring…
. .. and it’s all beginning to blossom and burgeon at the Watermill. Here’s Gina Shearston’s brief video view of the vine verandah. Soon we will be enjoying our evening aperitivi under the vines… Continue Reading
Still time to win a chance of a free holiday for your partner on a Watermill creative week
We would like to encourage more of you to subscribe to the free online Watermill newsletter and so we are running a competition with very special generous prize. But the competition closes at the end of this month, so now is the time to get your entry in. All you have to do is to tell us who is your favourite hero/heroine/famous couple from history, literature, movies and TV shows, and Continue Reading
End of term report on the Watermill’s online sessions: you’ve all done jolly well
Our paint-along with Mike Willdridge of two bicycling ladies in a Vietnamese market was the last in the current ‘term’ of our Watermill interactive online sessions. It's been another resounding success, with people from all over the world honing their skills and enjoying each other’s company as they painted along on Thursday afternoons with our inspiring tutors. We really have created an Continue Reading
A time-travelling conceit in the Fra Angelico bedroom
I wonder what Fra Angelico, the pious Dominican friar best known for his sublime frescoes in the monks’ cells in the monastery of San Marco in Florence, would have made of this mini-skirted teenager gracing a wall in the Watermill bedroom named after him? The 1960s girl in a mini-dress looks out on us from a watercolour made by a friend of ours, David Jones, a time-travelling conceit, as Continue Reading
A 1000-year-old hilltop village, stupendous marble mountains, a gourmet lunch… all this and painting too!
In the last of our series about the endless scenes to paint at our Watermill locations, we head for the hills! Gina Shearston's montage below captures the atmosphere: Today's location is the 1000-year-old hilltop village of Monte dei Bianchi, with the stupendous Apuan Alps, the marble mountains of Carrara, in the background. We saunter through the timeless village, painting in archways or on Continue Reading
If you like art and you like quizzes, you’ll love this
Our favourite online art magazine DailyArt.com provides plenty of inspiration for our blogs and Facebook posts – and we had so much fun with one of their recent publications, a quiz to see what you remember from a dozen or so famous paintings, that we thought we would share it with you. You will probably be familiar with the paintings themselves but how good are you at recalling specific details? Continue Reading
The importance of deciding where to place the focal point in your painting. A top tip from Randy Hale
Why not come and learn more about successful watercolour painting on Randy’s week-long course at the Watermill. Due to cancellation we have 1/2 places left on Randy’s course from Saturday 13 May to Saturday 20 May 2023 . Make the Watermill a focal point for your painting pleasure this spring. There is a link below. Randy Hale13 – 20 May 2023 – 1/2 placesWatercoloursTo learn more Continue Reading
Which came first? Belinda’s chickens or eggs?
I don’t know which came first in this delightful trio of paintings by Watermill tutor Belinda Biggs. But aren’t they fun? You can almost read the subjects' personalities as they strut about. (Well, perhaps not the eggs, but I’m sure that feather is slowly drifting down.) We’ll have to see if we can find some poultry when Belinda visits usfor a week-long course this summer. One of the girls in Continue Reading
Only a few days left to win a chance of a free holiday for your partner on a Watermill creative week
We would like to encourage more of you to subscribe to the free online Watermill newsletter and so we are running a competition with very special generous prize. All you have to do is to tell us who your favourite hero/heroine/famous couple from history, literature, movies and TV shows, and say why a paragraph or two. Your entry will win you the chance to bring your nonparticipating Continue Reading