Grace McKee, with her husband Philip, is a regular guest on our painting courses at the Watermill.  We’ve lost count of how many times they’ve been here, but it must be four or five now, and they are both delightful company. She has just posted this comment on Facebook: “Had a wonderful week painting at the Watermill. Bill and Lois are great hosts, Charles Sluga was an entertaining and informative instructor and all the painters were fun to be with.” And as a memento of her latest visit, she also posted the delightful little watercolour above of part of the mill buildings.

Charles Sluga will not be back with us until 2021, but if you can’t wait that long to sample the delights of the Watermill painting week, we have an inspiring line-up of internationally renowned painting tutors for 2020. You can find out more by clicking here. And don’t forget, if you book before the end of this year you can take advantage of our Early Bird Discount Offer: £75 (English pounds) off any of our creative courses. Come and join in the creativity and the fun! We would be delighted to welcome you here.

Although the weather wasn’t of the kindest this week, our painting guests on Charles Sluga’s course seemed to enjoy themselves and to have learned a lot from Charles’s excellent teaching. We managed to get out on location most days and, judging by the number of paintings on show at the impromptu exhibition in the studio yesterday evening, our guests were particularly productive.

Above you can see some of our guests on the last painting day, yesterday, at the thousand-year-old hilltop village of Monte dei Bianchi, painting in the small grassy piazza outside the church, with spectacular views of the Apuan Alps, the marble mountains of Carrara. And here’s Charles, earlier in the week, demonstrating how to paint trees!

Come and join us next year one of our painting courses and discover for yourself that whatever the weather, your week will be fun-filled and inspiring. There are already filling fast, so if you fancy a particular tutor (painting-wise, that is!) or a particular week, or a particular bedroom or apartment suite, now is the time to reserve your place. And don’t forget that if you book now you can take advantage of our Early Bird Discount Offer: a £75 (English pounds) discount on your 2020 holiday. You can find out all about our 2020 painting courses by clicking here. We would love to welcome you here and we can promise you more sunshine than showers!

English pastellist Rebecca de Mendonça’s teaching and painting are the result of a varied career in the arts. Having completed her degree in Theatre Design, she worked on projects ranging from Harrods Food Hall to the Phantom of the Opera and has been commissioned to paint dancers at English National Ballet and actors in West End Shows. She also loves painting buildings and landscapes – and people. The pastel above is her stunning Sitting on the Steps.

We’re delighted to welcome Rebecca back next year for another of her highly popular week-long courses in Pastels and Mixed Media. It will run from Saturday 5 September to Saturday 12 September 2020. Her atmospheric pastel below is of an archway in the walled village of Verrucola, one of the locations on our painting weeks.

Rebecca will help you to capture the architecture and landscape of the beautiful Watermill painting venues with a combination of materials: soft pastels, pen and ink, Conte crayons and pastel pencils, separately and in combination, to achieve lively sketches and finished pieces. You can find out more about Rebecca and her course at the Watermill by clicking here.

A comment from a previous guest: “It really was one of the best courses I’ve ever attended. No, I’ll amend that, it WAS the best. Good company, but above all, I felt Rebecca really cared that we all really achieved something during our time with her.”

Everything is included in the cost of your holiday at the watermill: tuition, accommodation, pre-dinner aperitifs, all meals and wines (including outings to charming local restaurants) and all local transportation. You get to Pisa, Italy, we do the rest!

Even though it’s almost a year away, we already have nine people booked into Rebecca’s 2020 course at the Watermill. One of them is a non-painting partner, so we have room for four more painters (and their partners, if they’d like to come with them) so now is the time to avoid disappointment and book your place. And don’t forget we have an Early Bird Discount Offer: If you book before 31 December 2019 there’s a £75 (English pounds) per person discount on this fabulous 2020 painting holiday.

Rebecca, Lois and I would like to welcome you to the Watermill and tell you more about Harrods Food Hall, the Phantom of the Opera and much else beside!

On Thursdays, after the excitements of their Wednesday excursions, we take our creative courses guests to the calm Convento del Carmine, a little beyond and above the nearby town of Fivizzano, with views over the town and the surrounding hills.

The convent (that’s what they call it, although the former inmates were monks, not nuns) is of the Carmelite order dates back to 1568. The Renaissance-style building has cloisters with sandstone columns and lunettes decorated with murals attributed to Stefano Lemmi of the Bolognese school of artists. It is surrounded by lovely gardens and 17 secluded hectares of pines, walnut, chestnut, cypress and fruit trees, meadows and streams and is now used as a venue for romantic weddings. (Incidentally the President of Italy and the president of Germany lunch there recently when they were in this area to commemorate the tragic events of August 1944, a dreadful time in northern Italy as the Allies pushed back the Germans.)

The convent, which was closed down in 1782, certainly is calm and peaceful, and our guests enjoy the exclusive use of its cloisters, gardens and grounds, and a delicious, gourmet picnic.

Many of our painting guests prefer to paint in the gardens and grounds, finding the curves and the perspective of the vaulted cloisters somewhat daunting, but many rise to the challenge. Here, for example, is a lovely watercolour sketch by one of our guests, Robert Christopher.

And a few more guests concentrating on getting it right.

Or you may prefer to enjoy fresh air in the gardens and paint the views. Lou Renner took these pictures on last week’s painting course tutored by his wife Maggie Renner Hellmann.

Here is Maggie herself capturing the curves undaunted.

Whether you want to tackle complicated perspective or just enjoy tranquil surroundings, you will find the convent a marvellous place to be. Why not join us and see for yourself on one of our sun-filled, fun-filled, inspiring painting courses. You can find out all about them by clicking here.

Places are filling fast for 2020, so if you’d like to reserve a place, now really is the time to book, especially as you can take advantage of our Early Bird Discount Offer: if you book before the end of this year there is £75 (English pounds) per person off any of our courses.