Due to a cancellation, we suddenly have a place in the delightful Gentileschi bedroom for Grahame Booth’s popular watercolour course this year. The course runs from Saturday 8 October to Saturday 15 October and we would be delighted to welcome you here.
The Gentileschi bedroom is light, bright, beautifully decorated with views over the Riverside Terrace and the River Rosario itself bubbling beyond. It celebrates a 17th century female painter who achieved fame in a man’s world. Artemisia Gentileschi worked in Florence at a time when female painters were not easily accepted by the artistic community, nor by patrons. But she was highly successful and was the first woman ever to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Designo. Artemisia has become a feminist’s favourite and while I appreciate her skill, I’m not the greatest of fans of Baroque painting in general. But in the naming of our bedrooms, it is good to celebrate women artists as well as the more well-known men of the Renaissance and Early Modern period.
We should celebrate two other artistic women, too: Vivienne White, our friend and interior designer, and Lois Breckon, who together chose the colours and painted the animated frieze of dandelion puffballs. The paintings above the bed are by a contemporary male artist, Michael Willdridge, and are part of a series of 100 paintings he painted in 100 days in 2018. (Number 100 is on our sitting room wall.)
Grahame Booth, from Northern Ireland, paints only in watercolour and his success is reflected in the numerous awards he has won over many years. His YouTube channel now has nearly 40,000 subscribers. Grahame only started to paint some 35 years ago, and, because he clearly remembers the problems of learning to master watercolours, he is a particularly sympathetic tutor,
Painting en plein air, he will show you how to translate the landscape into watercolours full of light, excitement and impact. As one student said: “Grahame can teach people of all levels and everyone learns and improves. Most importantly it’s always fun.†Another said: “I feel I have learned so much …Grahame is an excellent tutor and I have taken home lots of inspirational ideas, sketches and paintings…an absolutely magical holiday.â€
Grahame Booth – a couple of places available
8 – 15 October 2022
Watercolours
To learn more about Grahame and his course at the mill, please visit his 2022 Profile Page.