Watercolours, Wine, and a visit to the Brownings!
Poor Gordon , pictured below, thought he was coming over from Australia for a holiday with Victor Caulfield, portrayed behind him, but found himself tethered to a chair with a black cushion for a hat , sitting still for several hours whilst we used him as our model!
We produced some good work, everyone producing three dimensional images bearing a reasonable resemblance to our man!
Some excellent paintings of Gordon are not shown because the artists had left before we thought of taking this picture!
However one of our artists Rachel Mychajluk has set up a full page of photos of both this class plus our party on Saturday night which can be viewed on the Beyond the Yalla Dog (open) Facebook page.
Diane also took photos of her great work which is also on Facebook – below is a painting of John Howard that she completed on Sunday.
Below – Everyone concentrated on their work in progress.
This photo was taken at the beginning of the class when we were studying graded washes.
The one below was a discussion about painting over lunch – the painting water (wine) helped to lubricate the already lively discussion and facilitate the work for the afternoon!
At the end of Friday class we had a private visit to the Browning’s Home in the same building – Casa Guidi – thanks again to Rachel for the photos of this Victorian home of English poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning where they lived and wrote poetry from 1847 until Elizabeth died in 1861!
Their son Pen dearly wanted the apartment to be recreated in celebration of his illustrious parents and this began to happen as late at 1971 when the apartment was purchased by The Browning Institute of New York who began the restoration process.
Our next class with Glynis Barnes Mellish will be held in South London in November 2013.
Looks like this was a lovely time, Penny. Vicki and I have often gazed at the Casa Guidi, wondering what the apartment would look like and trying to imagine Robert and Elizabeth Browning walking together on the Via Romana. I went to the website to view the photos, but it said attachment unavailable, perhaps because I don’t belong to the group. So, I sent a request to join the group and also a friend request to you. Cheers, —Bob
Sorry about that Bob – will put you on group and check privacy settings!
It was wonderful! The instructor, the artists, our models, our gracious host and our wonderful organizer Penny Howard! Three days of learning, working hard, laughing hard, enjoying lovely lunches and being in Florence! Who could ask for a better time?
Rach Myc it was fun for me! Thank you so much for having me at the lovely events, the painting class and dinner