
I’ve just been looking at Watermill painting tutor Pamme Turner’s latest blog, about painting outdoors in early spring, in which she quotes that famous line above from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18.
Pamme has been painting en plein air on the East Coast of the USA and she writes in her travelling artist blog that Shakespeare: “sums up the springtime plein air painting weather on the East coast and beyond—windy, chilly, crisp days, lots of yellow and white jonquils, teeny field flowers and spectacular blooming trees—with the visual promise of wondrous warmer days ahead.”
Pamme adds: “Plein air painting in cooler weather can be wonderful—no bugs!!—and in the painting below by Renoir (of his dear friend Monet, hard at work), we can see from his buttoned jacket and woolly hat that Spring had probably not yet ‘sprung’ in this chilly Parisian suburb!”

And here’s Pamme’s latest watercolour, a still life “homage” to the wonderful American ex-pat painter, John Singer Sargent, using the same painting colours and palette “with thirteen (13) very distinct and unusual watercolour paint choices, including Chrome Yellow, Brown Pink and Carmine.

It should be warmer and less windy when Pamme joins us for her plein air course this summer. (But we are Cool and Green at the Watermill, thanks to our hidden array of photovoltaic panels which generate electricity from the sun and which powe our air-conditioning systems in all our bedrooms and public rooms.)
Pamme will be with us for her week-long workshop on ‘Plein Air Essentials’ in watercolors and gouache from Saturday 9 July to Saturday 16 July 2022. You will learn to paint with both transparent and/or opaque mediums “en plein air,” with an emphasis on beautiful watercolor techniques. As well as painting in the glorious Tuscan countryside you will also be working in the light and airy Watermill studio. The course is designed for painters of all levels.


Pamme Turner is a professional artist and college professor with multiple degrees in the Fine Arts. She has taught art classes and art workshops all over the world and has more than 30 years of teaching experience. She says: “I am fascinated by the creative art-making process and encourage my students to experience that same joy in all of their works.” A previous student says: “An incredible workshop; more educational than a whole college semester! And so much more fun!”
We already have 11 people booked into Pamme’s course, two of whom are non-painting partners. So, we have room for two or three more painters (and their non-painting partners, too, if they would like to join them.

Pamme Turner
9-16 July 2022 Two or three 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
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