Tess’s Blog

Vernazza, Cinque Terre

Magical, mystery tour in Cinque Terre and Fivizzano.

Our painting holiday in Cinque Terre, Italy. It is hard to know where to begin, there are so many...

Simply Watercolours. On line art course

Simply Watercolours online art course with Tess

November ends in provence

End of November in the vineyards. Fabrice is already pruning the vines ready for the winter. Bare,...

November 1st Part one

I rarely have time to write my blog. Which is a shame. I always want to have time to research something interesting. Give you fascinating things to read and tell you lots of wonderfully enticing tales. But I don't really have much to tell you at all. I can't believe...

A little blossom for hope

I pad painting by Tess Water colour by Tess Watercolour by Tess Almond blossom cut out by Tess Almond Blossom Van Gogh Out of all Van Gogh's paintings his Almond Blossom paintings are my favourite. I think they are utterly beautiful and well simply splendid and...

Inspired Matisse

I was in New York cooking in the Spring of 2007 for dear friends in their brown town house, a few minutes walk away from Central Park. Ten minutes from the Artist Student's League on 57th where I was a member every year for many years on the trot. Some of Americas...

Wishing for the New Year and hoping for better days

I have been feeling very wistful about my painting trips. I have missed them so much this year and all the lovely people that come on them. I am hoping so much that I will be able to start them again next year. Here in Provence in April and Cinque Terre Italy in May....

Christmas.

I don’t think I have ever noticed people looking forward to Christmas so much. Young and old alike. I have mixed feelings about it, I always do, but I have enjoyed painting Christmas cards, and I am looking forward to a bit of jolly, lots of colour and twinkling...

Painting in Burgundy

Good morning sunshine, the view this morning from our house. We are painting in one of the oldest wine regions in the world, the Phoenicians are said to have first introduced viticulture here in the 6th century BC. It is strange, I hear no birds, see no butterflies,...

Paint Provence in isolation

Actually, painting provence in isolation isn't hard at all, it is so huge and there are so few people in land even in the tourist season, that when we paint in the lavender fields we are never seen by other people. We even remain hidden when a cyclist cycles by!...

A rainy day in Provence and a chance to catch up

Hello everyone of course I say I will write tomorrow and I never do. Firstly to say I am having a sale of my paintings 50% off all of them, why you say, well I have a lot and I need to make the space for some more so please visit my website and see if there are any...

Flaments Rose

Just a few images and sketches from Saintes Maries de la Mer. Tomorrow I will write about the colours used. In the autumn I will run a short course here and in 2021 I will run, I will put dates up on website soon. It really is a must here. Aigues Mortes is steeped in...

Finished or not

Anemones on 640 grammes rough water colour paper (Arches) Using wet on dry and dry on dry. These little anemones have been bright and full for an entire week. I am not sure whether or not to leave the painting as finished or to add one or two more anemones as there...

Colours

Awake early this morning just in time to catch the sun as she rose, the dogs were less interested in the morning hues. I was transfixed. It is astonishing to me how much nature continues to give and give and how much we take from her. I started to think about all the...

DIFFERENCES

I clutched the moving rail, stood firm on the step lest I should lose my balance, I thought how different now to just  five years ago when I would have run down the escalator not thinking that I would be prone to dizzy spells and lack of balance. Age, I thought...

From Provence to the Charente

What a contrast! From mountains and turquoise lakes, red and yellow and golds, grass already burnt from the sun, 40 degrees and hotter, hiding from the sun to this idyllic weather 30 degrees maximum during the day, cool evenings and nights with cool breezes, no...

Nice, London, Los Angeles, Phoenix

Flying over the French Alpes it is worrying to see the scarcity of snow on the mountains. For miles inland from the coast there was no snow at all, which for this time of year is quite unusual. Even when we were further into the alpes the snow was only on the highest...

Happy Christmas from Graissessac

You can hardly imagine my surprise this morning, when Thomas and I were out walking, when all the pretty pink clouds in the sky appeared to change form in front of my very eyes, there they were bold as brass those lovely  little kissy fishes from years gone past! A...

Blowing at Bantham Sands

It has been pretty wet and rainy since I arrived in Devon and have had to content myself with painting indoors, not that indoors isn't wonderful, it is. Here I am with my sister Ellie and my niece Rosie and I am having a lovely time. We have been walking in the wind...

Painting in Little Bedwyn

  November with family and friends has become a regular holiday for me. Some would wonder why England and why November? But for me it is the perfect time of year to come. My painting trips have finished for the year the New Year hasn't quite crept up on me in the...

Walking with Anna. Palma de Mallorca

Another trip comes to an end. The last one of this year before taking Paint Provence with Tess to Lake Powell in Utah April 5th - April 13th 2019 if any of you are interested in seeing Antelope Canyon and amazing rock formations and desert come along on this trip I...

Painting in Venice and Padova

Painting in Venice and Padova

The Winged Lion of Saint Mark ( Saint Mark is the traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark. Mark is said to have founded the Church of Alexandria, one of the most important episcopal sees of Early Christianity. His feast day is celebrated on April 25, and...

Footsore and pensive in Venice

Not too sure where I was, near the Arsenal and near the gardens and everywhere in between. Near to the Architecure and Space exhibition but at the wrong end of it on the Bridge of Thoughts that led to the exit rather than the entrance. I could not find the entrance...

Cooking in Saint Paul

The photo above is not of Saint Paul but a Paint Provence lunch at home on our terrace in Lorgues. I am actually cooking for the summer months near to Saint Paul and the Colle-sur-Loup. Every year I promise myself I will take photo's of my food and every year I forget...

Lavender of Provence

Just as we were settling into our paintings the dream worthy vision above of three horses, their riders chatting away and two huge dogs came walking over the horizon and into view. Just a little north of the beautiful lake of Sainte-Croix-de-Verdon is the plateau of...

Perfectly eclectic Provence

Hello there, well it has been a while and my promise to myself that I will write a blog twice a week never seems to work out. I do want to write about the last trip as it was amazing, fun, interesting and a very different trip to my others. I found a sweet place just...

Pont de Crau

Here we are Paint Provencing  just a few minutes from Arles. I was delighted to find our rental villa is right in the middle of farm country. Wheat and barley fields and hedgerows filled with wild flowers. A long view to the Alpilles and of course the Van Gogh Museum...

And now we are four.

Fabulous photo by Dominique Baekelandt. The monumental hand with the tiny bird at our painting location yesterday in the almost desterted village of Lacoste. 'Welcome' is by sculptor Alexander Bourganov and over looks the fields and valleys below. Such concentration....