ITALY 2025

Posted on October 27, 2025 by splashingpaint

The textures and colors of Italy have made it one of my favourite painting locations. We spent a few days in Florence before heading off to Tenuta di Sticciano, between Florence and San Gimignano, for an 8 day painting retreat. I had a small, enthusiastic group of artists, a spacious studio and beautiful surroundings right in the middle of some of the best Tuscan villages and landscapes.

Early morning light on the Ponte Vecchio is one of the treats of Florence

Florence Cathedral built in the 14th century without power tools, cranes, laser levels or computers – just a lot of hard working, skilled craftsmen with a hundred years to get the job done.

Plain air painting at Tenuta di Sticciano

Our chef spoiled us with some fantastic traditional wood fired Pizzas

The painting studio at Tenuta di Sticciano was a great room. It was good to be able to display everyones work on the last day and enjoy what we had achieved with a glass of local wine.

Beautiful Tuscan sunsets from our accommodation…

…and some heavy Tuscan fogs before the sun rose.

Hats off to Tori who managed to swim laps every morning – undaunted by fog and low temperatures!

We visited a number of wonderful Medieval Tuscan villages, sketching and taking photographs which formed the basis for our paintings back in the studio.

Always lots of geraniums.

San Gimignano – Amazing textures, wonderful earthy colors and the worlds best Gelato’s

Beautiful brick and stone wall in Castellina in Chianti

We couldn’t have a painting retreat in Italy without including a red Vespa.

After the retreat in Tuscany Dianne and I caught the fast train to Rome. We made our way slowly through the Vatican Museum and enjoyed wandering around the city for three days.

From Rome we headed up to the hill town of Cortona. The town’s history goes back to Etruscan times and it’s location, on top of a steep hill surrounded by flat plains is spectacular. The highest point in the town is dominated by a Medici Fort which is now a series of galleries presenting some fantastic photographic exhibitions.

View of the only level street in Cortona from our apartment window.

Breakfast with a view across the plains to distant mountains was amazing.

Not far from Cortona by train is the city of Arezzo – full of narrow winding streets and in the Piazza Crande is the impressive 12th Century church, Santa Maria della Pieve

Our stay in Italy was over way too quickly. Europe to Australia without a stop over is not a pleasant trip. We arrived back in Brisbane airport full of great memories but feeling like exhausted zombies.

FRANCE

Posted on October 22, 2024 by splashingpaint

From Marrakesh we flew to Toulouse where we had a couple of days to explore the city. We were then picked up by a driver and taken through the French countryside to Domaine d’En Naudet, the beautiful venue for our week long painting retreat hosted by Uptrek.

Winding streets of Toulouse.

Bridge over the river Tarn, Toulouse.

View of the countryside from the tower at Domaine d’En Naudet. The foreground trees are oaks planted to grow truffles.

Domaine d’En Naudet

The tower at Domaine d’En Naudet was originally built for protection then in the early 1800’s converted to a pigeon house. It now serves as tall, thin accommodation.

Our painting group gathered under the tower

We were spoilt with a huge, well lit studio with attached kitchen and bathrooms and views from every window. Our hosts, Sophie and Nicholas, spoilt us with cakes, pastries, biscuits, cheese, fruit and coffee while we were busy painting in the studio

One of the downstairs windows at Domaine d’En Naudet.

Our host Nicholas arranged for us to visit his nearby neighbour, Madeline. She lives in a wonderfull old Medieval house with attached barn. It was a magnificent, unspoilt building and a pleasure to sit and paint the rustic details

The town of Albi was a spectacular surprise

Ancient brick and stonework reveals the history of these fantastic old buildings. Centuries of alterations, renovations and repairs create an amazing texture and expose the skill of these tradesmen over the centuries.

A modern steel gate blends beautifully with the ancient brickwork.

Saint-Salvy Cloister – Albi

Painting Albi from across the river Tarn

Sainte-Cecile Cathedral in Albi sure is an impressive building – lots of intricate, intersecting curves built entirely of brick.

Next to the Cathedral Sainte-Cecile is the Toulouse Lautrec museum. Another massive, construction all built from brick with a great collection of Lautrec’s paintings drawings and posters.

Château Lastours sits on the banks of the Tarn River surrounded by beautiful vineyards. We had a tour through their winery one afternoon, and sampled some fabulous wines – all stopped with cork, unlike the screw caps that have taken over in Australia.

Château Lastours old store room

Old church in the grounds of Château Lastours

Not far from Château Lastours, on the way back to Domaine d’En Naudet, Nicholas took us to the village of Lisle-sur-Tarn. The village dates back to the 13th century and many of the old Medieval buildings are still intact. Taxes were paid on the footprint of a building, so it was common practise to build a small footprint ground floor, then cantilever a larger second story.

Southern France’s Occitanie region is a beautiful landscape filled with well preserved medieval towns and villages that make visible its long and fascinating history.

A wonderful place for a painting retreat.

Many thanks to Nicholas and Sophie for being such wonderful hosts, to Uptrek for organising the retreat and to the fabulous group of people who made the retreat so memorable and enjoyable.

FLINDERS RANGES WORKSHOP

Posted on May 9, 2021 by splashingpaint

We left Arkaroola and headed down to Adelaide, exploring Wilpena, the southern Flinders and Burra, on the way. Our truck was parked in secure parking for the two weeks of the workshop. We spent a night in Adelaide, then we joined the painting group and travelled back up to Wilpena Pound Resort by coach for our first 5 days of the workshop.

The Flinders Ranges are a great place to paint – interesting buildings, spectacular gorges and a backdrop of magnificent purple mountains.

Here we painted the old Wilpena Station store where all the stations provisions were secured back in the 1800’s

This old door has been patched and repaired over the years, keeping the blacksmiths cottage secure for over a hundred years.

We painted the stony outcrops surrounding the Aroona Valley before going down into the Brachina Gorge to explore the rocks and pools

Brachina Gorge

We had two great indigenous guides to show us around the Brachina Gorge area. They took us to see these ancient rock engravings with all sorts of interesting details.

Leaving The Flinders, we moved on down to Burra, a beautiful little town with magnificent stone buildings built in the boom days of the towns copper mine in the 1800’s. We spent a few days in Burra exploring the area and painting.

Burra Main Street.

South Australia has a lot of old abandoned railway stations, some with old rolling stock, some with wheat silos and most of them built beautifully from local stone

One of our group has explored all the old abandoned stations in the lower Finders. He got permission from the owners of this beautiful old station for us to visit.

We spent a morning painting the old Farrell Flat Station.

Skillogalee Vineyard made a good painting destination. We sampled their wines, had a fabulous meal and painted in the vineyard garden – What a great day.

Lunch on the Skillogalee verandah.

Our last couple of days were spent in Hahndorf in the Adelaide hills. We visited The Cedars – the home and studio of Hans Heysen.

A beautiful studio with huge, frosted, south facing windows and a large open fireplace

We were lucky to have “The Two Marks” on board as we travelled around South Australia. Mark One , the driver, had a terrific knowledge of the area and kept us entertained and informed with some great stories. Mark Two, a local watercolourist and long time traveller through the region led us to some great painting locations we would have otherwise missed.

The passing vista of old abandoned buildings, big skies and bare rolling hills is unique to South Australia and is something that keeps drawing us back to this part of the country.

NORTH TO SCOTLAND

Posted on October 5, 2018 by splashingpaint

All Images © John Lovett 2018

Following our workshop in the South of England, Dianne and I hired a car and set off north to Scotland via Wales and the East coast of England. We set off in fine, sunny weather, but part way through Wales things turned damp and cool, gradually deteriorating to wet and cold as we headed North into Scotland. This change in the weather made walking unpleasant, but the dramatic skies, fog and wet landscape sure made for some great photographs.

Exmoor Ponies

Young Exmoor Pony

North West across the water.

Bottom of the hill – Robin Hood’s Bay

Whitby Abbey

Forgotten Hull – Boddin Point

Bayside Cottage

Boddin Point Fisherman’s Hut

Stonehaven Sunrise

Across the Moorings – Stonehaven

Along The Shorehead Road – Stonehaven

Dunnottar Castle

Last Drinks – Lovat Arms Hotel – Beauly

Blanket Clouds
Winding down the mountain

Eilean Donan Castle

Eilean Donan Castle

Eilean Donan Castle

Small holes in the sky

Clearing

WARWICK CASTLE

Posted on September 6, 2018 by splashingpaint

The history of Warwick Castle stretches back over 1000 years. It has been restored and repaired over that time and today is in fine shape. Ongoing maintenance is funded solely by ticket sales, helped by an impressive range of entertainment. These photos are from the daily reenactment of the War of the Roses held on a field outside the castle wall.

LOWELL and BISBEE

Posted on June 16, 2018 by splashingpaint

Bisbee is a copper mining town that has, some how, flourished since the mine closed. The steep landscape and opulent architecture, from the boom days, make the town uniquely attractive. Lots of interesting pubs, bars and restaurants, and an atmosphere of 1960’s counter culture, have given Bisbee a whole new life.

Just outside of Bisbee is, what’s left of, the town of Lowell. In the 1950’s the mine pit was expanded to extract more copper and most of the town was consumed in the expansion. What is left (Eire Street) appears to have been frozen in time. Crumbling buildings, closed businesses, old cars, weeds and debris. A fantastic and confusing place.

Reflections in a junk shop window

Bisbee graffiti wall

Chainsaw on a roof

Rustys Snacks

Main Street Bisbee

Captivating display of ancient dentistry.

Bisbee mine head

Mine Site

Shell servo, Lowell

Cadillac from space

Outside Lowell Gym.

Welcome

ON TO TOMBSTONE

Posted on June 14, 2018 by splashingpaint

After the workshop at Tanque Verde Ranch, we picked up a hire car in Tucson and headed over to Tombstone. The old town is still pretty well intact, but relies heavily on tourism, so has a bit of a theme park air about it. Lots of cowboys, bar girls and guns, but the old historic locations are all well preserved and very interesting.

From Tombstone we drove out to a few old ghost towns and abandoned mining towns in the region. We discovered some great old buildings in various stages of decay.

Rain across the prairies between Tucson and Tombstone