A flurry of bookings and some really dank weather has sent me hot foot to the book press. My scalpel skills are so honed now that I am thinking of opening a minor surgery unit. These sketchbooks have proved very popular with our artists so I thought I would spread the joy, and make a...Read More
Here’s a thing I never knew about olive oil – it goes off! Well, to be more exact it changes over the first few months. I always thought the issue was about virgin or not, cold pressed or not. But actually the taste of the oil when it has first been pressed is quite extraordinary...Read More
Hurrah it’s here, the new revamped website, capable of adapting to any screen. I’ve spent ions tweaking code (I’m particularly proud of what the young webbie coves call “jellyboxes”) and frankly I’d rather do my own dentistry. Happy to hear of any typos. Catch it before ‘they’ invent new stuff and I have to start...Read More
We have learnt now that for some reason different nationalities come in waves. This month we had a distinctly Netherlands feel with artists from Holland, Belgium and Isreal of dutch abstraction. Virginie (Belgium) was one of our youngest visitors at 28 and painted a great oil painting of the vespa – we have discovered that...Read More
The children returned from a day out in Matelica recently, each wielding a Patenta di Mattu – ‘License to be crazy’ – well, who knew you needed a license? In the middle ages bankrupts were forced to wear a silly hat and walk around the fountain twelve times whilst ringing a bell and shouting...Read More
I spent a while last year enjoying printing lessons with a local artist, Alberto, learning the finer points of intalghilo printing, no pun intended. It got to the stage where I was thinking of buying my own press, – well perhaps not at €1000 a pop. However I did think I could manage something abit...Read More
Here are a few examples of why I just love this time of year. The contrast between the blue mountains and the autumn trees just happens to be my favourite complimentary colour combination. I think next year – an autumn course and we shall chance our arm with the weather. Read More
This course, for some reason, was filled with our antipodean friends. We had John and Micheal from Australia and mother and daughter Deborah and Jenny from New Zealand, all avoiding the southern hemisphere winter. As the temperature hit 40 I guess that was mission accomplished. Fortunately the old farmers knew how to build and no...Read More
