Tag Archives: travel

ITALY 2025

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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.

AFRICA

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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.

FRANCE

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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.

TASMANIA

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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.

DOWN THE COAST

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With the school holidays over and the weather starting to cool down, it seemed like a good idea to take a couple of weeks exploring all the little beaches and coastal villages to the south of us.

We left home with clear skies and blazing sun, but my wish was for threatening clouds and dramatic light along the beaches – I guess you can’t have everything.

diggers

Perfect camping spot on a sunny headland with kangaroos and sea eagles at Diggers Camp.

redcliff

Sunrise on Redcliff Beach

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Cool, clear mornings and deserted beaches

sea

After a few days zigzagging in and out of all the southern beaches, rainclouds started moving up the coast and the swell picked up.

solisland

Looking towards Solitary Island under threatening skies. Great for photographs – not so good for painting watercolor.

diggersbeach

Painted in haste with a cup of sea water between showers as the tide came in.

tidal shelf

Back home in the studio, shuffling around ideas for a large wet and rainy painting.

HEADING EAST

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After a week in the Eastern Macdonnells we wound our way slowly back to the Plenty Highway and east to Boulia. From Boulia we took the Kennedy Development Road back to Winton.  This road takes us through the old settlement of Hamilton – once an interesting pub, now a roadside stop with remnants of the old settlement.

Hamilton 2012

Hamilton 1988

The roadside stop even has a shower – with cold and cold running water!

Remains of the old Hamilton stock yards.

This old windmill still pumps water up from underground to supply the shower.

Middleton Pub is further along the Kennedy Development Rd towards Winton. It has gone through a few changes over the years. The photo above is 2012 and the shot below is how it looked when we stopped there back  in 1982.

Between Hamilton and Middleton are the Lilleyvale Hills – a spectacular range of jump ups protruding from the flat landscape

We found this wet teddy bear, overcome by the grandeur of it all, head buried in the sand.

The Cawnpore lookout provides a great panorama of the hills.

The Kennedy Development Road is normally a 360km single lane strip of bitumen connecting Boulia and Winton. Unfortunately about 20kms approaching Winton had been dug up to be resurfaced. This would have been OK except heavy rain had turned the detour into impassable bog.

There were two road trains bogged in the mud and two more, each loaded with 120 ton of cattle, stopped on the edge of the formed road. The drivers told us the road had been closed so we camped the night on the road behind them. (Big fines for driving on closed roads.)  In the middle of the night another truck arrived and tried to drive around us, only to slide down, bogged in the side drain. Next morning road workers arrived with a grader to pull the road trains through.

We managed to churn our way through in front of the grader. Once in Winton we headed for the wash down hose at the saleyards to remove what looked like half a tone of thick sticky mud form under the truck.

By the time we reached Winton rain had set in so we headed for home