I have only recently come upon this wonderful, atmospheric watercolour of the 13th century Malaspina castle in Verrucola, one of the locations on our Watermill painting courses. Isn’t it a stunningly evocative painting? Here’s another: We go to paint at Verrucola every Monday on a painting course and we have other amazing locations as well: […]
Etymological trivia arising from Tom, Dick and Harry
We were talking yesterday about Tizio, Caio e Sempronio, the Italian equivalents of Tom, Dick and Harry and as I was writing that piece, I was intrigued by all the etymological trivia I gathered during my research. I suspect that many of my readers have a love of words, just as I do, so I […]
Artemisia and women tutors at the Watermill
Whatever you think of the paintings of Artemisia Gentileschi (and Lois will tell you that I’m underwhelmed), she is undoubtedly a feminist icon, celebrated for her struggles, professional and personal, in a world dominated by men. So, it is of both artistic and sociological significance when a new picture by Artemisia is discovered. And that’s […]
And so farewell…
… to Grahame Booth, our genial and generous tutor and his enthusiastic and energetic group of painters. This which will be included three charming French people, and painters (and their non-painting partners) from the UK, the USA and Canada. As usual, Gina Shearston captures the atmosphere of their farewell show the video above. Judging by […]
Two great reviews for Tim Wilmot’s Watermill painting course last week. We seem to be doing something right!
We have just had another two great reviews for a Watermill creative week, this time for Tim Wilmot’s painting course last week. First, from Sheena Simons, from Toronto, Canada, who came with her husband Martin, a non-painting partner. Sheena writes: “From the moment we arrived to the last minute of our vacation at the Watermill […]
Warm hospitality, cool rooms via solar-powered electricity, all part of the plan to make the Watermill Green
Whatever your thoughts on global warming, whether it’s just ‘weather’ or an existential threat to humankind, there’s no denying it’s been rather hot in much of Europe during the last two or three weeks. “Scorcio,†as they used to say in the mock weather forecasts on that brilliant TV comedy programme The Fast Show. And […]
A horse and carriage ride in Lucca, organised by two enterprising Watermill painting course guests
In the main squares of the beautiful city of Lucca, one of the destinations on our Wednesday excursions during our creative course weeks, no lonely cab horse steams and stamps, but occasionally you will see an open horse-drawn carriage clip-clopping through the historic streets. We never knew where they came from until last Wednesday when […]
It’s not just the painters who produce works of art…
This flower arrangement in the centre of our communal dining room was made by our social media factotum Gina Shearston, who also took the photograph. The Watermill team are nothing if not versatile!
Vegetarian snakes or nature as art?
Fawzia Rahman, who took this picture, calls them ‘vegetarian snakes.’ I think they are more like the sinuous natural curves that inspired art nouveau. Fawzia, a guest on Randy Hale’s painting course, took this picture on her afternoon walk along the millstream and riverside yesterday. The sinuous ‘snakes’ are, in fact, decayed tentacles of ivy […]
The end of two lovely creative knitting weeks with Georgia Farrell. Now to get down to some plein air painting!
We have just finished two back-to-back knitting weeks with our lovely new tutor Georgia Farrell. It was a great atmosphere on both weeks and our guests particularly seemed to enjoy being pulled out of their comfort zone by Georgia’s ‘knitted collage’ project, in which they clipped out architectural designs and shapes from magazines to make […]