Come along! Paint Provence with Tess April 29th- May 5th

It is bitterly cold almost everywhere in Europe at the moment, so I am jolly glad I will be off to Antigua with Paint Provence with Tess . We are now full house which is very exciting and we are already have enquiries for next year. Yippee! 

When I was six, my family, apart from my father moved lock stock and barrel to a remote village in the Oxfordshire country side. I was six, Candy eight and the twins, Ellie and Arlie just babies.  We first moved into a friends cottage. No heating to speak of, a tin bath that we had in front of the fire and we all shared the water, which during our early years was  fetched in a bucket from the green well in the village lane. Sanitation was an out door chemical loo. And in winter you really didn’t want to go there! My mother had stopped work to look after all of her daughters. Part joy part sadness. It must have been very difficult for her to make the change from the London social life, being part of film and theatre and living in a beautiful home in central London. But there we were thrown into a country way of life and for me it couldn’t have been better. I loved the country so much freedom to be had there.

 In Roushan the village where we lived, old Mr. King who lived next door used to say if the Hawthorn came out we should be prepared to a cold winter. They called it the Hawthorn Winter. Well that is what we are having here, however brief it may be. It was minus 6 when I arrived at the studio today 21 degrees fahrenheit, and apparantly Corsica is covered in snow!

So I am bringing my thoughts to warmer times, and very much looking forward to doing an end of April trip here http://paintprovencewithtess.com/dates-prices-destinations/ . I have been looking back at my photos and it is a time of great beauty, an abundance of spring flowers and the bright luminous green of the young vines shimmer in the sunshine.

The iris compete with the poppies.

and the lilac.

this little sketch was painted with a size 20 flat brush.

A painting day in early May under the shade of the Medlar tree.

And our painting day feast almost ready. If you can’t come for a whole week I also run one day and weekend long courses. The dates are up on my Paint Provence with Tess website. Click cook and paint and the Day Classes come up underneath!  Anyway thats all for now. Wishing you all a warm and sunny day.