The Watermill’s packed February Newsletter celebrates the great event of last month for the Breckon family: Lois’ graduation as a Doctor of Philosophy (music) at the University of London. It gives you the lowdown on why Bill spouts portentous poetry out loud most mornings. It also keeps you up to date on all our Watermill […]
Looking at pictures is good for your mental health
The English poet and playwright William Congreve said: “Music hath charms to sooth a savage breast,” but did you know that paintings, too, can enhance the mood, and that looking at art is good for your mental health? That’s the subject of a fascinating article in the online DailyArt magazine. Author Nina Relf lists five […]
Moving along with the Watermill online: from Mike’s bikes to Randy’s bronco
Thursday’s online interactive painting session with Mike Willdridge captured the Italian sunshine and a couple enjoying a leisurely bicycle ride in a seaside town. It was another lovely session for our ‘virtual’ international painting community, with people from all over the world getting together to paint along with Mike for two or three hours of […]
Ride ‘em, cowboy! How to turn a stunning photograph into a compelling picture, in Randy’s online interactive session
Yee ha! Head out West with us for an American adventure. Randy Hale’s next painting session features this dynamic photograph of a cowboy riding a bucking bronco (left). Randy will show you how to convert this into a stupendous painting, capturing movement, energy and excitement in every brushstroke (right). Saddle up and join Randy for […]
Still time to brighten your chilly winter day painting the Italian seaside sunlight online, along with Mike
Lois and I have just had a very chilly week in London, and it wasn’t much warmer on our return to Florence yesterday. So, what could be nicer this week than painting warm Italian sunshine – and in the comfort of your own home! That’s just what you will be doing on Mike Willdridge’s latest […]
Make your watercolours better by keeping some water out! Carl will show you how
As Lois says in the video above, water-resistant techniques can help to make your watercolours even better, and our painting tutor Carl March will show you how it’s done, in our FREE online session on 8 February. For more details and to register, just click here. Join us to banish water and add a new […]
How we are making the Watermill Cooler and Greener. Part Two: Electricity
I reckon that you could boil 25,000 teapotsful* (litres) of water in an electric kettle on the amount of electricity we’ve produced from the sun at the Watermill. I hope I’ve got the figures right, and you may think I ought to have better things to do with my time, but I was just trying […]
How we made the Watermill Cooler and Greener in 2023 (Part One: Water)
We have just received the lovely ‘thank you’ video above from the charity Ocean Bottle, with whom we work to try to reduce the amount of plastic pollution in our oceans. (I must say, our contribution seems piffling when compared with the size of the problem, but as they say, every little helps.) We have […]
Brighten your winter day painting the Italian sunlight online along with Mike
Click on the video above to hear Lois telling you about Mike Willdridge’s latest interactive online painting session with the Watermill. As Lois says, what could be nicer than painting Italian sunshine? — And that’s just what you’ll be doing along with Mike on Thursday 25 January. Details and a link below. Mike says: “This […]
That’s what we call an interesting backyard! More than 100 people painted it along online with Pamme yesterday
Yes, more than 100 people joined Watermill painting tutor Pamme Turner yesterday to learn how to capture the beauty of their own backyards. (As we said in a previous blog, Americans and British people have a different interpretation of the word: in Britain, a backyard is generally a small space with no garden, but in […]