Before our workshop started in Lecce, we stopped over in Milan. The weather ranged from brilliant sunshine to pouring rain which made getting around a little difficult. The upside was the city looked amazing with the heavy skies, reflections and scattered umbrellas.
From Milan we made our way to Lecce to meet all the people for the start of our painting workshop. Our hotel was just outside the walls of the old town so it was an easy walk in to paint, sketch and wander around.
Lecce – Monastery DoorLecce Cafe
We left Lecce and moved on to Matera – the oldest continuously inhabited settlement on the planet. Really interesting city with great shapes and textures to paint.
Matera Matera
From Matera we travelled to Polignano a Mare – a beautiful town perched on cliffs above the Adriatic. From Polignano we took day trips to Monopoli, Gallipoli and Alberobello to paint and sketch. We also visited a local vineyard and were treated to some beautiful wines and a wonderful, home cooked Italian meal.
Cape Town, Victoria Falls and Chobe National Park were the three destinations for our African workshop with Travelrite. We were kept busy with painting, sketching, site seeing, game drives and river cruises. The wildlife was fantastic and the villages and cities picturesque and interesting. We had a wonderful group and enjoyed ourselves immensely.
In Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, every house is painted a different color
Bo-Kaap is also the home of some beautifully decaying old cars with rusting patinas, makeshift repairs, flat tyres and no rego.
Down along the waterfront is a hive of activity. Ship yards fishing boats, cargo ships and tourism all spread out along the waterfront.
Painting above the Haute Cabriere vinyard, Franschhoek
Haute Cabriere cellars
Sunset on the Zambezi River
Spectacular Victoria Falls from Helicopter
From the ground the falls are huge, impressive and very wet
Raincoats on a sunny day
From Victoria Falls we moved on to Botswana and Chobe National Park. We saw a great variety of birds and animals on two afternoon game drives and a chilly 6am drive, plus a boat trip down the Chobe River late in the afternoon.
Elephant sketch
Cape Buffalo
Black Backed Jackal
Male Kudu
Young lion – mum was sound asleep a couple of meters away
Zebras
We came across this pack of African Wild Dogs beside the road very early one morning
Cheetah – slowly through the grass
Red Billed Hornbill
Pied Kingfisher
Red Billed Oxpecker – on the back of an Impala
Lilac Breasted Roller
African Skimmer
Carmine Bee Eater
Carmine Bee Eaters
Hippos in the Chobe River
Happy looking Crocodile
We stayed right on the river at the Cresta Mowana Resort
Impalas are common throughout the National Park.
We were sad to be leaving Africa and saying farewell to our great group of painters and fellow travellers. Lots of places still unseen, so we will definitely be back.
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.
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
After the Flinders Ranges Workshop we returned to Adelaide, picked up our truck from storage and headed south to Robe, a small fishing village. After two weeks of perfect weather for the workshop, we drove south into howling wind and rain.
The coastline around Robe is rugged and isolated. We had a couple of days in Robe then turned east to follow the Great Ocean Road along the Victorian coast. By now the rain had eased but the wind was still howling in from Antarctica – Chilly, but spectacular.
We caught up with our kids in Melbourne for a few days then headed up to the Snowy Mountains
Always a great place to camp along the Swampy Plains River at Geehi. We were surprised at the number of rabbits (and foxes) – the calicivirus seems to have no effect here.
From Geehi we drove up over the mountains, Past Thredbo and on to the Murrumbidgee River on the Long Plain Road. We often camp here when we are in the High Country, but were amazed to find the area coated thickly in white next morning. Spectacular, but freezing cold!
A fisherman dropped in around 9am on his way to Tantangra Dam. He said the temperature readout in his Landcruiser was saying -5, so I dont know what it got down to overnight. Our water pipes were frozen, the hot water heater had frozen and burst and, in spite of filling with what we thought was winter diesel, couldn’t start the truck till after 10am.
Leaving the snowy, we drove up to the Warrumbungle Mountains to spend a couple of days. This time of year encountering snakes is unusual but this big Red Bellied Black snake decided to cross the path right in front of us. We left him to crawl off into the bush.
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.
The track improves and far off in the distance The Flinders Ranges become visible
North Mulga Station sits on a lonely stretch of land at the Southern end of the Strzelecki.
The southern end of the track crosses a dingo fence that stretches as far as the eye can see in both directions
Dogs are trapped and poisoned in an attempt to give the farmers a chance to raise stock on these huge properties.
A pair of Brolgas heading to a water hole at sunset
Corellas make a home in a giant River Red Gum
Approaching the Arkaroola turn off in the Northern Flinders.
Back into harsh, dry country around Arkaroola
The dark nights and clear air around Arkaroola are perfect for astronomy. There are a couple of large telescopes on the property.
A big Wedge tail surveys the countryside.
The small, endangered Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby lives in the hills around the Flinders Ranges.
Feral Goats also compete for grass and water in the area.
Our workshop at Dillmans was a lot of fun – catching up with old friends and meeting new people. We were a couple of weeks early for the full Fall colors, but White Sand Lake is spectacular any time.
Great View from our cabin on the lake
Sandhill Crane – Dillmans
From Dillmans we headed over to Boone, North Carolina to meet “Cheap Joe” Miller – What a great guy – A real gentleman and character, the only person I know that can play Pachelbells Canon on a specially tuned wooden stick
Rocking Chairs on Cheap Joes Studio Verandah
Cheap Joe’s Workshop Studio is fantastic – lots of space, great light and a big overhead screen and camera
Beautiful old wooden Barn near Todd NC
Todd General Store and Bakery, near Boone NC
Bob and Tom – Irish Pub, Bradenton FL
Great to catch up with Joe Costanza in Florida – Crazy sense of humour and lots of great stories
Curious Squirrel
Gulf backwater near Mobile AL
Tupelo Honey
Old fish processing building as the sun rises – Apalachicola FL
Fishing Floats
Sad to see the Hurricane damage around the Gulf of Mexico. This, once grand, building in Apalachicola has an optimistic ‘Opening Soon’ sign, that appears to have been in place for quite a while
