Fabriano, Sicily and where next?

I don’t quite remember which star I wished on, but all of a sudden I seem to be travelling all over the place, mainly to Italy and mainly art-related.
Much as I love Malta, it’s lovely to feast my eyes on rolling green vistas and new sights and sounds.

​At the beginning of April I was in Sicily with fellow artist Caroline Said Lawrence on a scouting trip for the art holiday we will be leading 27th - 29th May. We were whizzed about timing distances and looking at the locations (checking out the local cafes, ice creams, restaurants etc) (plus extensive wine sampling) honestly, it was hard work! We simplified the programme and are very excited about it all! It’s not too late to book – more details here.

See Caroline's report on our test run here :-)

Last weekend though, I was further north, in Italy itself. Led by our intrepid Leader Andrew Smith, seven of us represented Malta at the Fabriano Watercolour Convention. Fabriano is the home of the famous watercolour paper loved the world over. The mills have now moved out of the town, but we toured the old paper mill and museum. Some of us even had a go at making hand-made paper!

All the artist's names displayed together.....

looking for ours......

The picturesque Medieval town welcomed artists from all over the world; 50 countries, 38 artistic communities and 730 artists to be exact. There were people painting everywhere we looked, and every public space had been filled with our works. We all contributed one painting and it was fascinating to see the collections from countries as diverse as Iraq , USA, Japan, India and more.

.. and I am above Alvaro Castagnet (Watercolour God) ha ha

We 

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We stayed in a nearby hilltop village called Collamato which means 'love of the hills'. ​

Collamato

The Andrews Smith and Borg, Anna Galea, Sarah Calleja, Diane Agius, Joe Casapinta and I did our best to show Malta at its best. Anna gave a demo in front of hundreds of people (I wasn’t brave enough!) we danced to a brilliant ethnic band at the final party, painted in the streets with the rest of them, ate as much pasta and drank as much wine as we could. Malta should be proud of us. This was all self financed, I have to say. We deserve to be supported next time.

On the way back to the airport we stopped off at Gubbio and Assisi – both beautiful and full of delights.
The seven of us are plotting more adventures together including an exhibition of the works we created, so watch this space!

I wonder where I will be going next?

Meanwhile, my Tuesday morning classes are moving from Le Meridien in Balluta Bay to Palazzo de Piro in Mdina from the 3rd May. I am looking forward to helping students tackle those great open views from the upper terraces!
My classes still continue at Villa Bologna on Friday mornings. This Wednesday 4th May we will be opening our first Spring Exhibition of works there. My students and I are hanging two works each. It will be open to the public from 5th May to 2nd June, so do drop in if you are in the area. ​​