Autumn news, plus a free lesson this week

Published 8 days ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader,

I'm just back from Italy and my final retreat of this year. We had a full week of painting, laughing, exploring and eating! Hotel Leone, our 500 year old palazzo, was just beautiful and it was a delightful surprise how pretty the little hilltop town of Montelparo is - cathedrals, cobbled streets, towers and old city walls, plus sweeping vistas from the Sibillini Mountains down to the Adriatic Sea. An inspiring location to spend a lifetime, and the week just rushed by.

It's traditional for me to write a recap on my blog after a retreat. So grab a cuppa and head on over there for photos and a short story of what we got up to.

ITALY RECAP

Waiting for the colours to change

Back home in the Pyrenees we've had some very welcome rain and a drop in temperatures after a dry summer. The colours have changed quickly, but to a lovely fresh green! No autumn golds or yellows just yet. I've been getting out and about with my leporello sketchbooks and I've recently finished one which is all scenes close to home. Except for one bridge scene, it seems all my subjects in this one were churches, monasteries or chapels. Hmmm. This wasn't my intention, but it has given the leporello a cohesive theme :-)

MY LATEST LEPORELLO

In the studio

Rainy days mean studio time, which I'm really happy about. I've been painting lots of autumn themed little postcards while I wait for the world to catch up in colour outside. And I'm planning a series of paintings inspired by all the little birds we have around our village - bee eaters, barn swallows, tits, sparrows and more. These bird paintings are only drawings at the moment, but watch this space.

Also, David is working on building me a new online shop right now. I can hear him tapping away. So I'm hoping that soon I'll be writing to say that I've got original paintings for sale again.

An autumn lesson for you

My Patrons have access to a whole archive of autumn themed lessons - trees, landscapes, toadstools and mushrooms, plus I have new ones coming out this month. I'd like to share one from the archives with you this week.

Paint these beautiful bonnet mushrooms with us. I've made this lesson available for free until 14 October. Just tap 'Sign up for free' and it's yours to paint along.

FREE LESSON

Wishing you a colourful and creative week.

Hugs,
Renee

P.S.
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