Italy, Sicily – where next?

me in Collamato

I must have wished on the right lucky star, as all of a sudden I seem to be travelling all over the place, mainly to Italy and mainly art-related.
I live in Malta, and much as I love it, it’s a treat to feast my eyes on rolling green vistas and new sights and sounds.

us in Fabriano

​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!

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

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.

caro and me

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?