PORTUGAL

Posted on September 29, 2024 by splashingpaint

After a three year postponement due to covid, our Portugal workshop finally went ahead. We were joined by our guides Amanda and Gordon and around twenty keen painters. The workshop started in Lisbon where we all got to know each other and some great friendships were formed. A mixture of painting, sightseeing, shopping, wining and dining kept us all very busy.

The view from the rooftop bar at our hotel in Lisbon was stunning. It’s a densely packed city and most of the population seem to be out walking.

Most towns we visited in Portugal had beautifully tiled streets and pavements – time consuming work to lay all these tiny stone blocks by hand but it looks fantastic.

Lisbon’s vintage trams move people around the city centre pretty efficiently but walking seems to be the preferred mode of transport.

Fancy neon

The streets and alleyways are a great place to take photographs. There is always somewhere catching just the right light and the bends, twists and undulations make interesting compositions.

Stacked wine glasses in a restaurant window

Interesting machine parked outside a high end store

Porto was clouded in smoke from nearby bushfires. It was hard to breathe, it stung your eyes, but looked fantastic

Strange red sun as it set through a curtain of smoke

Traditional river boats in Porto are still built and maintained on the riverside slipway

Fantastic old buildings perched along the riverside in Porto

Washing day

…Cant resist a pink wall

We toured the palace in Sintra then painted in the town square.

This beautiful building was tucked into the hillside above the town of Sintra

Azenhas do Mar was a beautiful seaside town where we spent a day painting and enjoying the warm coastal weather.

Lunch on the beach with Amanda and Gordon – Azenhas do Mar

Most abandoned buildings eventually attract a coating of graffiti

Dried, salted Cod waiting to be turned into a tasty delicacy.

Bridge over the Douro River in Porto.

PAINT AFRICA

Posted on June 27, 2024 by splashingpaint

Join me in May 2025 for a fabulous painting, sketching and sight seeing journey through Africa.

Be inspired by the animals in Chobe National Park, the architecture of South Africa and the splendour of Victoria Falls

Click Here For Details

TASMANIA

Posted on March 27, 2024 by splashingpaint

What a lot of fun, six weeks of workshops and travel in Tasmania. We had two workshops in Hobart and one traveling from Launceston to Smithton then on to Strahan and finally back to Hobart. We were spoilt with fabulous food, great accommodation, wonderful company and a coach to take us to the numerous painting locations.

We had some great painting locations and also did a lot of sketches.

While in Hobart we traveled down to the village of Franklin – Famous for it’s wooden boats

Beautifully built from Huon Pine

Life on the river

Late afternoon light was amazing.

The old boathouse where wooden boats are built and repaired.

Parked carefully in a shed, this old Suzuki still has a lot of life in it yet.

I cant resist photographing houses painted this crazy green

Strahan Evening

Strahan early in the morning

Hells Gate lighthouse

There are some fantastic old wooden boat sheds, apple sheds and huts south of Hobart – some in better condition than others.

After the workshop Dianne and I drove down to Cockle Creek, the southern tip of Tasmania. Great camping spots, beautiful beaches and inlets.

We were lucky to see this Spotted Quoll out foraging

Great birdlife too.

Tasmania is a great place to travel. It is small and easy to get around, it has a huge variety of attractions. We travelled from the cold dramatic Western Tiers and Highland Lakes down to the sunny comfort of the coast in a couple of hours. The forests of the extreme south are unspoilt and beautiful. Tasmania’s history is dramatic and well preserved, and the state has some of the best food, wine and beer in Australia.

Well worth a visit.

NZ South Island

Posted on April 18, 2023 by splashingpaint

Two workshops, back to back, in the beautiful South Island of New Zealand. What a treat, the weather was surprisingly kind to us and the scenery spectacular.

Queenstown was our starting point. This old steam powered launch, The Earnslaw, cruises up and down the lake

Painting on the shore of Lake Wakatipu.

Glenorchy Mountains

Lake Wakatipu along the road to Glenorchy

Petrol bowser recycled – Cardrona

Old timber shed and wagon out the back of Cardrona Pub

Winter wood supply – Cardrona Pub

NZ Woodhen

Tui Tui

Historic remains of old Cromwell

Arrowtown was a great place to paint – Interesting Cafes and bars, and coffee never too far away

Larnach Castle – Dunedin – A fascinating history explained with enthusiasm by our knowledgable guide

Iron gate behind the castle – keeps the ghosts in and the bad guys out.

Boat sheds on Dunedin Harbour were fun to paint – sitting by the water on a sunny afternoon.

WEST TO WINTON

Posted on June 29, 2022 by splashingpaint

A workshop in Blackall and another spread between Longreach and Winton saw us load up the truck and head off to central Queensland for six weeks. The country was incredibly green after all the rain and flooding. Many roads were still closed and venturing off the bitumen was a slippery, muddy exercise.

Silos on the road to Roma

This old pub at Wallumbilla looks less than inviting soaked in rain and surrounded by mud, but the local graziers couldn’t be happier.

Retirement green confusion – Morvan.

Early morning – Morven waterhole

Disused railway crane – Morven

Camping out of Tambo was a little tricky – where there wasn’t grass there was thick, sticky mud.

Sunrise through a layer of fog, Tambo

Union Hotel Blackall – still sells cold beer, but not much else

The weekly cattle sale in Blackall saw some fat’ healthy cattle, happy sellers and not so happy re-stockers.

Lisa and Bruce, from one of the big sheep stations out of Blackall, invited us out to see the end of the shearing.

These guys work flat out, fired up by loud, fast music, high demand and and a competitive attitude.

Shearing their way through several thousand sheep is hard, back breaking work.

Ancient Technology from the Isisford Picture Theatre.

Drowned caravans camped in the Barcoo River, Isisford. Ignore the locals at your peril.

An empty paddock next to the old Langenbaker House in Ilfracombe made a great place to paint

DC3 at the Qantas Museum Longreach

Retired Catalina at the Qantas Museum

Before the workshop in Winton, Dianne and I went out to the clay pans at Bladensburg to find a painting location

Willy Mar’s old market garden store, Winton

We painted Willy Mar’s old truck (now up on blocks next to his old market garden and store.

We spent a morning in the old Bladensburg woolshed painting the ancient wool press.

This was the demonstration painting I did. (Couldn’t help using Phthalo Green!)

Looking west towards Winton – an unusual sea of lush, green grass

At the Winton Dinosaur Centre, volunteers work tirelessly separating rock from fossil to reconstruct the skeletons of dinosaurs.

After the Winton workshop Dianne and I headed back out to Bladensburg to camp and watch the sun go down.

Heading east, we found this lake with amazing sunsets and fantastic birdlife.

Our camp, just visible from the top of a nearby hill

Sunset one side, full moon the other.

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.

OLD STRZELECKI TRACK

Posted on May 4, 2021 by splashingpaint

After 12 months of Covid restrictions it sure is a good feeling to load up our truck and head out west again. Our plan is to head west through Queensland and cross the, now open, border into South Australia around Innamincka. From there we will follow Strzelecki Creek along the Old Strzelecki Track, stopping at some of the waterholes mentioned by John Conrick in his 1870 journey to find a route to drive cattle from Western Queensland to Adelaide.

We will leave our truck in Adelaide then travel by coach back up to the Flinders Ranges to conduct a painting workshop for two weeks

Crop dusting vast fields of Cotton near St. George, Qld.

Old Dynevor Downs shearing shed. Every time we drive past I stop and take a photo. Over the last 30 odd years we have seen it slowly deteriorate. Wild dogs have virtually shut down the wool industry in Western Queensland.

An unusual site – The Wilson river at Noccundra brim full of water.

As we head out through Western Queensland it is great to see all the creeks and waterholes full from recent rain.

The normally dry desert country is green and full of wild flowers at the moment.

The Old Strzelecki Track could better be described as the Old Strzelecki River. Kilometres of the track were under water so we had to use side tracks most of the way. The abundance of water meant that birdlife was scattered far and wide, unlike in dry times when the odd small waterhole attracted hundreds of birds. We managed to find a couple of Conrick’s waterholes but the condition of the track made it difficult.

This ever changing sculpture made from camel bones and accumulated junk marks the end of the Strzelecki Track and the Northern approach to the Flinders Ranges.