![](https://watermill.net/millblog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Mike-Flavio-bridge-431x600.png)
![](https://watermill.net/millblog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Mike-HS-Copy-597x600.jpg)
We cannot allow Mike Willldridge’s online interactive painting session last Thursday to go uncelebrated. For not only was it the last session of our current interactive season, but it was also Mike’s last-ever. Â
He is retiring this year and after he has been with us for his week-long residential course this summer, he will no longer be a tutor at the mill.
It really is the end of an era, for Mike has been with us since 2009, 15 years of inspirational teaching, enthusiasm, friendship and fun. And he has stepped into the breach on a number of occasions when one or other of our tutors had suddenly to cancel.
![Mike Willdidge's watercolour of the bamboozery hangs in the Watermill sitting room.](https://watermill.net/millblog/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Mike-bamboo-painting-417x600.jpg)
We would also like to thank his charming wife Sue, who has always accompanied him on his journeys here and whose delightful company and willing assistance has added another dimension to Mike’s painting weeks. We shall miss you both, but at least we have one more week to look forward to this summer.
Mille Grazie, as they say here, a thousand thank-yous. We will always remember you at the Watermill, not least the glorious paintings you made here, many of which adorn the walls of Watermill public rooms and bedrooms. A few of them, featuring local scenes, are scattered about this article.
![](https://watermill.net/millblog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Mike-Posara-lane-600x399.jpg)
![](https://watermill.net/millblog/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Mike-hilltop-village-practice-paintiing-600x437.jpg)
![](https://watermill.net/millblog/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Mike-looser-3-e1416142045620.jpg)