The fact that the online DailyArt magazine celebrated her birthday on Friday with an interesting article about Berthe Morisot gives me the excuse to brighten our Sunday with one of my favourite paintings, a portrait of Berthe by Edouard Manet. If ever a painting expressed a man’s love it is this one.
As well as being Manet’s muse, Berthe was a great painter in her own right, participating in the major exhibitions of French Impressionism. Her subjects, like theirs, were scenes from everyday life, with an emphasis on capturing the effects of light. This is one of her masterpieces, Woman at Her Toilette.
Daily Art magazine founder Zuzanna Stanska writes: “Typical of Impressionists, Morisot attempted to capture the essence of modern life in summary. The subject, explored before numerous times by Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir was rarely broached at this time by women artists — maybe because of its erotic connotations.
“The painting is like a visual poem, with all these shades of lavender, pink, blue, white, and grey. By denying us seeing the model’s face, Morisot broke with the convention of using the mirror as a means to double the voyeuristic pleasure of glancing at a woman unawares. Morisot’s women are usually like this – suggestive and delicate, implied by nuance of color and lightness of touch.â€
You can subscribe to Daily Art online magazine (it’s free) by clicking here.
I hope the pictures bring a little summery warmth to a cold winter’s day and may inspire you to join one of our renowned Watermill creative courses this year. As usual at the weekend, I have attached a list of our 2022 courses showing the current availability. You will see that many of our courses are already fully booked, but as we always say, don’t despair if a tutor or week you particularly like is full. There are always cancellations and if there is a course you particularly like please let us know and we’ll put you on a waiting list.
In the meantime, as we say over here, buona domenica, have a happy Sunday.
First, painting.
Mary Padgett
30 April – 7 May 2022 Course full, Waiting list open
Pastels (and other portable materials) en plein air
To learn more about Mary and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Keiko Tanabe
21 – 28 May 2022 One place left
Watercolours
To learn more about Keiko and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Maggie Renner Hellman
28 May-4 June 2022 Fully booked, waiting list open
Courageous Color Workshop’ Your choice: oils, acrylics, pastels and/or watercolour travel sketches
To learn more about Maggie and her course at the Watermill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Ruth Koch
4-11 June 2022 Course full, Waiting list open
Art journaling
To learn more about Ruth and her course at the Watermill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Randy Hale
11-18 June 2022 O Fully booked, waiting list open
Watercolours
To learn more about Randy and his course at the Watermill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.
Vicki Norman
2-9 July 2022 Fully booked, waiting list open
Oils and watercolours (and other mediums)
To learn more about Vicki and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Pamme Turner
9-16 July 2022 Three or four places left
Watercolour and gouache en plein air
To learn more about Pamme and her week at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page
Carl March
16-23 July 2022 Three or four places left
Drawing and watercolour en plein air
To learn more about Carl and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.
Paul Talbot-Greaves
20-27 August 2022 Still plenty of places
Watercolours (and acrylics)
To learn more about Paul and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.
Rebecca de Mendonça
27 August-3 September 2022 Four or five places left
Pastels
To learn more about Rebecca and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Mike Willdridge
3-10 September 2022 Course full, Waiting list open
Watercolours and drawing (also gouache and acrylics, with a special emphasis on drawing on location.)
To learn more about Mike and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.
Varvara Neiman
10-17 September 2022 Still plenty of places
Water-based oils, acrylics and watercolours
To learn more about Varvara and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Milind Mulick
17-24 September 2022 Course full, waiting list open
‘Colourful watercolours’
To learn more about Milind and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.
Cynthia Armstrong
24 September-1 October 2022 Course full, Waiting list open
Watercolours and gouache
To learn more about Cynthia and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Tim Wilmot
1-8 October 2022 Course full, Waiting list open
Watercolours
To learn more about Tim and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.
Grahame Booth
8 – 15 October 2022 Course full, Waiting list open
Watercolours
To learn more about Grahame and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.
Our wonderful writing course
Jo Parfitt
18-25 June 2022 Course full, Waiting list open
Writing your fife stories
To learn more about Jo and her course at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Our notable knitting weeks
Norah Gaughan Course full, Waiting list open
23-30 April 2022
Knitting and la bella vita
To learn more about Norah and her week at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Louisa Harding
7-14 May 2022 one place left
Knitting and la bella vita
To learn more about Louisa and her week at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Debbie Abrahams
14-21 May 2022 Course full, Waiting list open
Knitting and la bella vita
23-30 April 2022
To learn more about Debbie and her week at the mill, please visit her 2022 Profile Page.
Our unique Italian Language course
Francesca la Sala
15-22 October 2022 Three places left
A novel approach to learning Italian
To learn more about Francesca and our unique Italian week at the mill, please click here.