Georgia: Visit a woman who has various businesses – which include knitting socks which she dyes using vegetable dyes she has brewed and making lethal alcohol flavoured with honey. Her cellar is a wonderful shrine to fruit and vegetables and alcohol. The Babaneuri Strict Nature Reserve has many zelkova trees.
I spent last week at Lumb Bank near Hebden Bridge –Â the Arvon Foundation’s Yorkshire outpost. It was the house that belonged to Ted Hughes. I went there determined to try and get back into writing my thriller. And succeeded – the next hurdle is to continue now that I’m back home. Before I left I … Read more
September – always a positive if somewhat melancholy month for me – new beginnings and in my case this year a new website. With the old one I felt that the paintings were just an add on – with the new one I feel that they are integral to the site. Indeed the home page … Read more
Having found out where the hermit nun lives, I get up very early and walk to her chapel in the woods. I rather assumed she’d be an early riser but I think I arrive too early as the chapel is still locked. I ring a bell and she comes out and lets me in. A … Read more
In the morning we drive to Goult and I draw in the local cemetery which has amazing topiaried trees. We go back to the studio and do paintings from the drawings. After lunch I go for a walk in search of the hermit nun I have heard about. Evidently I don’t walk far enough …
We’re dropped off in Joucas and the theme for the morning is to paint the whole page simultaneously with a tapestry of colours. I start off with the church which appeals as it has a cypress tree each side of the main door – and at the moment I love drawing and painting cypress trees! … Read more
Drive to a spot where we can see the red stone houses of Roussillon in the distance – but we are soon rained off so spend the rest of the morning painting in the studio. In the afternoon the rain stops so we go back to paint Roussillon.
Mark tells us that human sacrifices took place on the flat rock which I spend the morning painting – but another theory is that it was used as an observatory. We are encouraged to use a reduced palette with just one range of colours. In the afternoon we drive to a local forest with wonderful … Read more
In the morning get taken to the market in Isle-sur-la Sorgue. It’s a particularly vibrant market and as usual at a French market I am struck by the wonderful displays of vegetables. Why can’t we do the same here? In the afternoon we go out to a local chateau  with limited materials and draw with … Read more
Get on a train just after 7 am at St Pancras and 5 ½ hours later I’m met at Avignon by David Atkinson. The beginning of a week’s painting in Provence at Les Bassacs. We are 12 students in total with Mark Cazalet, whom I’d known from England, as the teacher. Les Bassacs is a … Read more