Online interactive painting sessions from The Watermill at Posara
The Watermill’s series of online, interactive painting sessions are proving extremely successful in bringing hundreds of people together to paint along with some of our inspiring Watermill tutors principally Mike Willdridge and Randy Hale. We have participants from all over the world, creating a truly international ‘virtual’ community of like-minded people enjoying an inspiring and relaxing time in each other’s company.
Unlike many online painting programmes, our Watermill tutors will not expect you to ‘look over their shoulder’ for a long demonstration, and perhaps be allowed to ask the odd question or two. No, you will be painting along at more or less the same time, trying out the techniques that they have shown you, step-by-step. They will demonstrate a tip or technique for only a few minutes before you start painting the same subject at home. Then, after you have had your turn, they will move on to the next part of the process. Lois Breckon will be on hand to feed your questions. The session will last two or three hours.
The sessions start up again in the autumn of 2023 and run through until the spring of 2024. We would love you to join us. We will update this page regularly as more details become available.
To register, please go to https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/painting-online-with-thewatermill-at-posara-70229, select a session, choose ‘Reserve a spot’ highlighted in a red box, then register with a donation. We suggest £25 GBP per session.
The start time for each session is the same:
- 6 pm Florence, Italy
- 5 pm London, UK
- Noon from Maine to Florida, USA
- 10 am in Denver (Mountain Time Zone) USA
- 9 am from Los Angeles to Seattle, USA
Our forthcoming online sessions
Tutors’ paintings from previous online sessions.
Left: Mike’s Italian village and autumnal walk; right: Randy’s Italian spa and snowy cottages.
7 March 2024 ● Randy Hale
Subject tba
21 March 2024 ● Mike Willdridge
Beach at Massa Carrara, Italy. Two women lying under a large umbrella
Composition and foreshortening
Start time:
- 6 pm Florence, Italy
- 5 pm London, UK
- Noon from Maine to Florida, USA
- 10 am in Denver (Mountain Time Zone) USA
- 9 am from Los Angeles to Seattle, USA
When you register for an online session we will send you images of the scene and often a practice painting by the tutor to inspire you. We’ll also give you a link to a suggested materials list and colours for your palette.
After the session we will send you a link to an exclusive video that will enable to you revisit the step-by-step teaching. Many of our guests also send us pictures of their own efforts during the sessions and we set up a private gallery for the session so you will be able to see what everyone has achieved.
Students’ paintings from previous online sessions with Mike and Randy
Unlike many online painting programmes, our watercolour tutors will not expect you to ‘look over their shoulder’ for a long demonstration, and perhaps be allowed to ask the odd question or two. No, you will be painting along at more or less the same time, trying out the watercolour techniques that they have shown you, step-by-step. They will demonstrate some basic techniques for only a few minutes before you start painting the same subject at home. Then, after you have had your turn, they will move onto the next part of the process. Lois will be on hand to feed your questions. The session will last a couple of hours.
We would love you to join us and we are sure you will find the online, interactive sessions both illuminating and inspiring – and a very welcome distraction..
Happy painting!
A 'virtual' week at the mill - Video Box Sets
From the comfort of your own home, and in your own time, you can enjoy the excitement of painting watercolour in the wonderful Tuscan countryside, with Mike Willdridge. As Mike says: "You really only learn to paint by PAINTING," and these videos help you do just that.
These unique 'box sets' comprise the edited online sessions from Mike Willdridge's 'virtual' weeks at the mill, with different scenes for each week.. There are seven separate videos for each box set, one for each venue including sketching in Pisa and the Cinque Terre (Lucca in the second week). You paint along with Mike 'on location', learning about perspective, mixing colours and drawing figures, all the while deepening your knowledge and experience of painting watercolour. As one student said: "I learnt more in seven days than I had in seven years!"