Great week in SARDINIA

After a three hour delay at the airport I at last arrived at Alghero airport and was greeted by Maria who whisked me off to the lovely little Hotel Funtanerana fourty minutes drive away.

After meeting everyone we got to grips with some painting and sketching interspersed with the odd 'Ichnusa', the local beer. My first sketch , which i have included here, is of the fountain that gave the Hotel it's name. The weather was getting rather WARM to say the least.

Our first trip was to the small riverside town of Bosa about an hour's drive from the hotel. I couldn't get over how UNDER populated Sardinia was as we hardly saw any development on our trip...what a refreshing change ! We spent a very enjoyable day in Bosa with packed lunches by the river.

Another day out took us to Maria's parents vineyard 'Badu Oschiri' where we were greeted with Sardinian hospitality , food and of course WINE !! The temp was well into the 30's so it was rather warm and the paint was drying as fast as you put it on the paper.

Our trip to the old town of Alghero was very interesting with it's wealth of old buildings , then it was off to the beach for lunch and a dip in the sea. Sadly some bad weather had washed a lot of the sand away and there were too many rocks about. The landlord of the taverna plied us with the local Grappa which nearly blew our heads off.

This was the first holiday I had done with Maria and John who were great hosts and made sure everyone's needs were well catered for. I am looking foward to tutouring for them again next year so watch this space !

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Taking a trip...

This Spring's trip to the Finca proved to be extra exciting ! After a few days to get to grips with a few techniques we set off to the coast for a few days, travelling westwards towards Gibralta and beyond.

Lunchtime and we stopped off for a drink and a bite to eat at the Hurricane Hotel and boy was it well named. There was a really fierce wind blowing but that didn't stop me dashing off a quick sketch of the beach area even though I had to tie my sketchbook down to stop it flying away !

We had now left the warm waters of the Med and were now on the Atlantic Coast.

Travelling further up the west coast of Spain towards Cadiz we stopped off at the small resort of Zahara de los Atunes where we stayed the night.

Doing a sketch atop a large sand dune I was almost sandblasted by the time I had finished.

Next morning we set off inland to Medina Sidonia, a small viilage named after the Admiral of the Armada. After a very pleasant mornings painting we headed back to the Finca through some really stunning scenery. Must get to paint some of these scenes one day !!