Photo Book

May 1-14, 2011 watercolour tour has now come to a close... but with it came a book of the tour!
Anyone can purchase it, but really it has photos of the folks from the tour itself.
Still it give a nice idea of where and what we do. Preview it at Blurb.
Enjoy!

Island of Korčula, Croatia

www.blurb.com

A 14-day painting holiday to the island of Korcula, Croatia from May 1-14th, 2011 Korcula, in Croatia, is one of the most lush & fertile islands found in the Adriatic Sea. Rich in history & culture, it is a unique place of secluded beaches & bays, small & uninhabited islands & breathtaking views –http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2193247

May 14, 2011 - Dubrovnik

May 14, 2011 - Dubrovnik

We decided on an early ferry so that everyone had extra time in the morning, once we got to Dubrovnik, to look around.  

Everyone was up on time and ready to go at 6:30am to catch the 7am ferry.  We had a quick breakfast, our last breakfast, on the front porch.  It was going to be a lovely day.  The sun was coming up and the water was like glass.

Tomi had the bus packed and we were off.  We had a quick stop at Bella Vista restaurant, just before Ston, for coffee and a bathroom break and we then arrived in Cavtat at 10:00am.

We had found out earlier in the trip that there were going to be 9000 people in Dubrovnik today as there were 4 ships coming to port.  As we drove into Dubrovnik we saw 2 parked in port and then as we went past Dubrovnik, on to Cavtat, there were 2 more parked in the bay.

Mihaela had us all organized with our rooms and we were able to get back on the bus by 10:30am so that we arrived in Dubrovnik at Ploče gate to the old city (Stari Grad).  We said our goodbyes to Tomi and we entered the old city.  Already there were a lot of people.  We stopped infront of Saint Blaise church where were would meet at 12:55pm to walk to Lokanda restaurant for lunch at 1pm.

Everyone had a nice glimpse of Dubrovnik before lunch and would see more on our tour this afternoon.  We walked to Lokanda, which is on the back side of dubrovnik where the port  of Stari Grad is, and sat on a large out door patio, covered by white umbrellas, for lunch.  The cold platters came out and we were offered Octopus salad, tuna pate, sardines, anchovies, cheese and olives.  Lunch followed with grilled squid, grilled shrimp, seafood risotto, squid risotto, and grilled small white fish.  This restaurant is known for serving everything in black iron pots.

A few of us had dessert and others coffee, and we were all content by the time Antonija met us at 3pm for our tour.  Antonija took us to the parts of Old dubrovnik the regular tourists do not think of going.  We stayed off the Stradun and went to where the people of Stari Grad live.  It was quiet, peaceful and shady.  We found 2 of the local bars on the exterior of the western walls where you could swim and have a drink.  It was accessed by walking through the walls of Dubrovnik… this used to be the beach for the local residents.

Our tour ended at the water fountain and then everyone had another 1.5 hours to wander around before we met to catch our water taxi back to Cavtat.

Everyone was early to meet the water taxi, as I had threatened that if anyone missed it they would have to get back to Cavtat themselves.  We boarded the boat and left Dubrovnik at 6:30pm.  It is a lovely view of Dubrovnik from this side, although the sun had not set yet so taking a picture was difficult.  The ride back was 45 minutes and I am pretty sure there were a few people that napped on the way back. We arrived in Cavtat at 7:15pm and walked directly to Galija for dinner.  Jodi and Preston were already there as they had taken the 4pm ferry back.  

Dinner started with spinach soup, followed by salad and then vegetarian cannelloni.  Again a few people ordered dessert and coffee.  At about 9pm everyone started saying their goodbyes and we all headed back to our accommodations.  It was a beautiful day and the perfect way to end a wonderful trip.  Thanks to everyone that joined us on our 14 day tour and I do hope we will see you all this way again.

 Cathedral of the
Assumption of the Virgin

Streets of Stari Grad

May 13, 2011 - Korčula

May 13, 2011 - Korčula

Our last day on the Island.  We left Lovrić at 9:30pm and drove into Korcula and set up on the southern side, for a different view. 

Southern side

Everyone painted until lunch and then we walked into Korčula old town for some last sight seeing and souvenir shopping.

Jonelle, Georgia and Karin returned early to set up for the 5:30pm Art show at the back of Lovric.  Everyone would show case 3 pieces of their art from the trip.

Tomi picked us up at 3pm and we headed home.

5:30pm rolled around quickly and everyone arrived, dressed up, for our last evening together.  Silvana contributed to the cocktail hour with fried dough treats, pršut, cheese, olives and cookies for dessert and  I had brought some red and white wine over of my dads for the occasion.

Everyone's art was wonderful!  It was so nice to see how well everyone did :)  My Dad, Nick, showed up and was impressed with how professional everyone's work was.  It was a lovely time to share with everyone.

Drying fish nets

Old town home

Secondary stairs to Old Town

Our last dinner was "Guests Choice".  It started with mushroom soup, followed by ricola salad, grilled sea bream, french fries, and tiramisu for dessert.

May 12, 2011 - Račišće

May 12, 2011 - Račišće

The drive to Račišće is the curviest we have been on since driving from Dubrovnik on our first day.  Tomi declares it the worst the road on the island.

We arrive in Račišće and the sun is out in full force.  We find 2 cafes, one open and one not.  The one that is not open has a large patio and so half of our group sets up there… if they open, then they will buy coffee.  A few of us start our day with coffee at the open cafe and the rest walk to the other end of town, stopping along the way to find painting spots.  Gitta sets up at the end of the pier in full sun… for sure she will be swimming today!

Luckily the closed cafe did not open till 1pm and so we were all able to have lunch in the shade.  Our waiter opened after and we were all able to have an after lunch coffee.  Gitta came over and said she was going to go swimming before lunch and asked that we keep an eye on her stuff at the end of the pier … wouldn't you know, while she is swimming and large sailboat docks right infront of her… blocking her view.

This boat has cyclists on board and what they do is drop the cyclists  off in Korcula, they cycle to Račišće and the boat meets them there.  It is a good ride with luckily few hills.  The boat loaded up all its people and sailed away… unfortunately Gitta had moved positions and no longer wanted her old view back.

Tomi picked us up at 3pm and we were back at Lovric at 3:45.  A few people returned to More wine bar before the 6pm critique.  Dinner was pea soup, mixed grill meat, and chocolate cake with nuts on top for dessert.

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May 11, 2011 - Pupnat

May 11, 2011 - Pupnat

I arrived at Lovric looking very sportif and announced that I was going to see if Preston wanted to go on a 3 hour hike!

Pupnatska Luka at
the top

We are going to  Pupnat today and just outside of Pupnat is a lovely bay called Pupnatska Luka… the only problem is that it is at the bottom of a very high hill.

Once we dropped every on off in Pupnat, and got Jonelle organized with the lunch, Loris drove Preston and me to the top of the road to Pupnatska Luka.  We walked to the bottom in about 40 minutes, had lunch at the bottom at the beach and then headed back up the hill at noon.  It had be overcast all morning and now the sun decided to come out to light the way back to Pupnat!  It took us about 50 minutes to get back up the hill then and then we were on the highway back to Pupnat.  We had another 45 minute walk  back to Pupnat and our goal was to  make it back before the cafe closed, so that we could have our well deserved beer :)  We did not actually know it would take 45 minutes but we made it to the cafe at 1:30 so we had lots of time for beer before they were suppose to close at 2:30pm.

Pupnat

Meanwhile back in Pupnat, everyone had found their location to paint.  Cynthia was perched at higher level looking over the town and had been there all morning, when a yellow truck stopped to talked to her.  In broken English the guy wanted to know how long she had been painting there, Cynthia said "all morning" and so he wanted to know if she recognized his truck?  No, she said, she had never seen it before.  This confirmed, for him, that he had not been down this road before.  What is funny about this is that Pupnat has a population of about 400 people and this guy was a delivery person who was lost.  With one main road and then one smaller upper road, it really is impossible to get lost in Pupnat and that is exactly what this guy was!

Pupnat argricultural area

After Preston and I arrived at the cafe and had been there for about 1/2 hour, slowly the rest of the group started to petter in and joined us for some beverages.  

Loris arrived at 3pm and we headed back.  We made a quick pit stop in Korcula so that people could get money and then we were home by 4pm.

Critique was at 6pm with dinner to follow at 7pm.  Dinner tonight was barley soup, goulash on mashed potatoes, and meringue dessert.

May 10, 2011 - Lumbarda, Vela Glavica

May 10, 2011 - Lumbarda

Vela Glavica Church

Still a bit windy today but nothing like yesterday.  We have an appointment to go and see a local artist, Stipe Nobilo, at 10:15pm in Lumbarda in Vela Glavica.  Tomi and Loris dropped us off at the church and we walked over to Stipe Nobilos.  Stipe was born in Lumbarda and has always lived here.  He has shown his work around the world but never felt the need to live anywhere else.  He has a lovely new studio that is attached to his old house, that was designed by his son who is an architect.  They did a lovely job of making everything work well together.  

After our visit, we returned to the church area and everyone found a place to paint for the afternoon.  

Stipe's house

Jim, Sue and I walked into Lumbarda to see if the souvenir store was open but it was not, so we went for coffee instead  While we were there Chris, Karin and Georgia joined us and then Georgia and I went to the grocery store to buy some local spices. 

Back at the church people were finishing off their paintings and several decided to walk back home,  but first stopping at More Restaurant for a drink.  The bus came at 3:30pm and we dropped the balance off at More to join the group.

I found out that the souvenir shop was open so I drove back to Lovric to pick up Jima and Gitta so they could buy their Glagolitic t-shirts… they bought me one too as a thank you.

View out from Stipes house

Dinner tonight started with Tomato soup, followed by grilled fish and rosata for dessert.

Brna - May 9, 2011

May 9, 2011

Out of the wind

The bura is back.  The bura is the north wind and although it is not raining the weather is cool.

Because of the bura we have to be on the west side of the island so that we are not blown away.  Luckily we are going to Brna today.  Brna is where the folks from Smokvica have their weekend houses, so it took us about 40 minutes to get there.  There was still some wind but nothing like in Lumbarda.

Mermaid of Brna

Artistic tree

There was a mild panic on my part as the cafe that has always been open in previous years was not open and neither were the other 2 cafes!  What would we do about bathrooms?  I asked Tomi to hold the bus until we had a solution.  Luckily Brna has Hotel Feral and the cafe is open all day for the patrons… there happened to be a group of 30 Germans staying there.  Yay we had a bathroom!

Everyone scouted out a spot out of the wind for the day.  Lunch was at 12:30pm and it was agreed that we should head back at 3pm instead of 4pm.

Tomi arrived in our nice warm bus and we were off to Sveti Antun to climb 101 steps.  

View from Sveti Antun

Sveti Antun church is a small church that is perched at the top of a hill… it has 101 steps to get to the top.  Once you are at the top you have the most wonderful views of Sveti Antun village, Badija and Korcula. With the clear sky it was a beautiful photo opportunity.  Our group also huddled infront of the church for a group shot.

We returned home by 4:15pm so everyone had a few hours to spruce up their paintings before the 6pm critique.

Dinner tonight was egg soup, meat loaf with a hard boiled egg centre (they call it meat strudel here) and a lemon pastry dessert.

After dinner Robert Vegar, a local jewellery artist, dropped by with his wares, some traditional and some more modern, and we spent 1/2 hour picking and choosing our favourites. 

May 7, 2011 - Zrnovo

May 7, 2011

Today we headed to Zrnovo, a village about 15 minutes from Korcula that has an upper village and a lower village… we went to the lower village.

Front door to old Church

Church inside a Church

 We were dropped off in the centre of town a the church within the church.  The original church had been destroyed by the communists and only the front door was left standing along with three walls of the back section.  They then built a new church inside the back section.

Our group spread far and wide throughout Zrnovo.  It was not until lunch rolled around that we realized that Cynthia and Mary Beth had walked to the upper village and were painting the view from St. Vitus church.  I told them to stay put at the end of the day and we would pick them up.  

oldest house in Zrnovo

Jonelle had been intercepted on her walk by a woman that spoke english well and was shown the oldest building in Zrnovo.  Jonelle then took a group of us over… it really was old and it was nice to see that the owners were renovating it back to its former glory.

Lovely view of Zrnovo

Sue was told to take a certain road to the top and she would find the best view of Zrnovo there.  We hiked up the road and came to someones home at which point Sue would have turned around but I told her to follow me and we took a small path to the top.  it certainly was a beautiful view.  On our way back down we found a lovely little restaurant with a wonderful patio.  This was a lucky find as the cafe in the centre had closed after lunch as not everyone had got their coffee fix.

Jodi and Preston had decided that they had finished painting for the day and Jonelle had made her rounds, so the 4 of us headed back to the restaurant and had a drink on the terrace.  

Sue, in the mean time, had gone back for a drink with a friend.  While she had been painting a woman had befriended her and told her to come back later for a glass of wine.  Sue obliged and, along with wine, had a wonderful dessert treat, that resembled a truffle visually but was not so creamy.

Tomi and Loris arrived at 3:30pm promptly to pick us up and we headed uptown to get Cynthia and Mary Beth who were patiently waiting on a wall for us.  We then turned around and went back through the lower town and took a windy back road down to Zrnovosko Banji, which has the summer homes of the folks from Zrnovo.  The view coming down the hill is breath taking.

6pm was critique time again and wow everyone had done a wonderful job!  I came back for dinner around 6:30pm and Karin decided that I would not eat unless I could identify which painting was whose!  I have to say I did fairly well and was only thrown off course by one painting that was a water painting and Zrnovo has no water… Chris confessed it was hers :)

It looks like the locals have decided summer is here as Lovric had rolled up their plastic dining room walls…we were officially eating on an open terrace.  Dinner started with a meat soup, followed by Cebapcece, which is actually the national Bosnian dish, of small sausages made with 3 types of meat.  There was a lasagna looking item that was made with layers of phyllo pastry, spinach and tomato salsa.  There was also fried eggplant.  Dessert followed with chocolate cake.

May 6, 2011 - Badija and Vrnik

May 6, 2011 - Badija and Vrnik

Mary Beth on Badija

Karen on Badija

There is a bit of wind today but we should be protected by the islands.  At 9:30am everyone packed up my car with their gear and had a nice leisurely walk to the marina where we were catching our boat.  The boat arrived promptly at 10am and we were off to  our first island Badija.  Badija has a 14th century Franciscan Monastery, which is presently being renovated, outdoor sports facilities, and a small cafe.  There are walking paths that will take you to the top of Badija, where you have a 360 degree view of the mainland and Korcula.

We stayed on Badija for the morning, had lunch at 12:30 and the boat came to pick us up at 1:30pm to take us to Vrnik.

Entry to 1 of the 20 homes

Vrnik is a lovely little island with 2 churches, 20 houses and a quarry in the centre of the island.  There is only one permanent resident that lives there all year round, the balance of the houses are occupied and rented out during the summer months.  Although you are isolated on the island there is a regular taxi service throughout the summer months to Lumbarda, Badija and Korcula.

We stayed on Vrnik for the afternoon and everyone was spread out.  Gitta found the 2nd small church, Jennifer found some old steps, both Cynthia and Mary Beth loved the backside of the larger church.

Gitta's small church

Our taxi came at 5pm to pick us up and we were home by 5:45pm.  We went straight into our critique before dinner at 7pm.

Dinner tonight was seafood pasta, starting with a fish soup, and ending with a meringue dessert… finally Chris could eat a dessert!!!

May 5, 2011 - Korcula

May 5, 2011 - Korcula

Finally the weather is nice enough to visit Korcula!  It is such a beautiful town that it really wasted if it seen on a rainy day.

Breakfast was at 7:45am today and wouldn't you know it, Jonelle was done early :)  I promise to note that we were early for Loris :)

Sveti Nikola church

Loris came to get us at 10am and we headed off to Korcula.  We were dropped off at Sveti Nikola church which is on the north side of Korcula.  The church itself is lovely and has a small pier with fishing boats behind it.  From here you also have a wonderful view of Korcula and the road leading towards the church that is lined with palm trees.  3 of our group set up in the little marina, Preston set up to paint the church, Chris the coast line and fig tree, Jodi the road way leading to the church and the balance all had different vistas of Korcula.  It was a lovely morning with the wind slightly picking up from the north west by lunch.

After lunch we walked into Korcula and everyone left their bags with me at a cafe and set off to do some sketching.  We reconvened  at 3:30pm and it was decided to head back to Lovric to finish up some paintings from previous days.

Grill squid - lignja in Croatian

There was a 6pm critique and then dinner was served at 7pm.  Tonight we started with mushroom soup, arugila salad, then fried squid, followed by tiramisu.  A few people were squeamish about the squid but those of us that ate it loved it.  It is different then our calamari at home as it is not breaded and sliced in rings, but cooked whole on the grill.  The tiramisu was also voted the best dessert yet!

May 4, 2011 - Smokvica

May 4, 2011

Still overcast but no rain… the forecast is suppose to clear up this afternoon and Jodi tells us that for the rest of the trip it will be 70 degrees and clear weather… we are all hoping that she is right!

3 of our group decided to catch the catamaran  to Split for the day.  It left at 6am from Korcula and will arrive in Split at 8:30am.  They will return on the 4pm catamaran which will arrive at 6:30pm in Korcula.

The rest of us had our breakfast at our usual time of 8am and were finished fairly quickly so that Jonelle could start her lecture 15 minutes early.   She has decided that starting tomorrow breakfast will start at 7:45am so that she has more time for her lectures…. we will see as this morning even with the extra 15 minutes she went straight to 10am!

The Purification of Our Lady

Steeple of Our Lady

old and crumbly

Baroque loggia

We all piled into the minivan and headed to Smokvica, a town about 35 minutes west of Lumbarda.  Smokvica has a covered area right next to the main church just incase it decides to rain.  Upon arriving in Smokvica, I realized that I had forgotten to bring our boxed lunch!  Loris suggested that there was a bus going from Korcula  to Vela Luka that stops in Smokvica. So Silvana put the cooler on the bus and I waited for the bus to arrive just before 1pm.  Everything worked out fine and we got our lunch :)

People continued to paint into the afternoon and then Loris picked us up at 4pm and we were back at Lovric at 4:30pm.  Everyone had a few hours before the 6pm critique and then dinner at 7pm.  Dinner started with lentil soup, meat in a sauce with gnocchi, and apple strudel for dessert.

May 3, 2011 - Lumbarda

Darn it all, it is raining again and it is windy. I picked up Jonelle before breakfast and took her to Przina, which is one of Lumbarda's beaches.  Przina is located on the west side of Lumbarda and the bay is protected from the wind.  Jonelle decided it would not be too windy to paint.  On the way to Przina, there is a little church with an open front foyer and a roof, we would be able to paint there too.   We had breakfast from 8-9am and then a lecture from 9-10am.  Loris arrived at 10am to take us to Przina.  Jonelle did a demonstration and then everyone started to paint.  Jim decided he wanted to go "gunk-holing" which means exploring all the nooks and crannies around the area. We went up to the olive press and looked down on all our painters; then over to Bilinzal (another Lumbarda beach); over to some of the small suburbs of Lumbarda that look down on the centre of town and over towards Vela Glavica where the large church is.  I kept driving us to dead ends where we would have to turn around in small spaces.  Finally we ended up back at Przina where Jonelle was just about to do another demonstration.  After I drove Jim and Karin to the little church so they could take some photos.  Loris picked us up at 12:15pm and we headed back to Lovric for a 1pm lunch.  

The weather was not really cooperating, so Loris came back at 2:30pm and drove us to Frank Milina Bire Winery.  Frank gave us a tour of his operation, including where the grapes are squashed, fermented and then the stored.  Frank has 18,000 vines which produces 18 tonnes of grapes, 10,000 litres of wine and 15,000 bottles of wine.  About 30-40% is sold to the bus loads of people that come to his winery every summer and the balance is sold to restaurants in Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb. After our tour, everyone found a place to paint and painted until 4:30pm.  At 4:30pm we sat down for some wine tasting, which included Plavac Mali, Grk, & flavoured Rakija (Grappa).

We left Franks at 5:30 and were able to walk back to Lovric as it had stopped raining.  Everyone freshened up  before dinner at 7pm.  Tonight the menu included pea soup, stuffed peppers and smashed potatoes, and lemon cake for dessert.

May 2, 2011 - Lumbarda

Lovric Pansion

Sveti Ivan Church

We woke up to a beautiful day!  The sun is shining and it nice and warm.  Our Seattle folks are loving the sun.  

We had breakfast on the front balcony, of meat, cheese, eggs, cereal, yogurt, orange juice, and lots of coffee.

At 9am we headed to the projection room for our first lesson which lasted about an hour. 




Jonelle talked about value sketches, contrast drawings, charging, and glazing. It lasted about an hour and then everyone had to go out and do there value sketch and contrast drawings before lunch.

Lunch was served on the front balcony and after Jonelle had another lecture.  The afternoon was spent working around Lovric.  Some people painted a view of Lumbarda, others the grape vines, and others the cemetery.  It was a productive afternoon.  

At the side of the house Silvana started preparing for dinner.  She fired up the grill and laid the fish out to cook… a rather pretty picture in itself.  The name of the fish was bream which, I am told, is hard to find at home.  Dinner started with fish soup with parsley, followed by the bream with a side of potatoes and spinach and for dessert, lemon cheesecake.

May 1, 2011 - Transfer to the Island of Korcula

May 1, 2011

View of Cavtat from Villa Cavtat

Still raining!  But it is a travel day so not a big problem.  Breakfast was held at Villa Cavtat with lots of eggs, bread, jam and coffee.  Our bus arrived at 10am and we were packed and ready to go by 10:30am.  We drove for an hour and stopped in Mali Ston for lunch.  Normally we would have been able to walk around for 1/2 an hour before lunch but the rain put a stop to that, so we had lunch early and were able to catch the 2:30pm ferry to the Island of Korcula instead of the 3:30pm.  We arrived at Pansion Lovric with Renci, Sylvana, Mustafa and Edina waiting to help take all the luggage to the rooms.  We got everyone settled by about 4:30pm, and Jonelle gave the afternoon off for people to explore. 

It is hard to get lost in Lumbarda so most people had had a nice walk before dinner.

Dinner started at 7pm, but a few people were already on the balcony enjoying a bottle of red wine made by Pansion Lovric.  Although the weather was a little cool we were still able to sit on the balcony for dinner, as the balcony has side panels to keep any wind or rain out.   Our dinner started with chicken soup, followed by a shredded cabbage salad, then zrnovoski makaroni (Zrnovo macaroni, traditional hand made macaroni) and ended with two sweet squares for dessert.  

April 30, 2011

April 30, 2011

Half of the group had arrived by the 30th and the other half arrived on the 30th.  We had made arrangements to meet for dinner at 6:45pm at the bottom of the hill and then we would head to the restaurant together.  At 6:00pm the sky opened up and down came the rain!  Jonelle, Georgia and I had just sat down for a drink and were soon joined by Sue and Jim, who had hoped to get some sightseeing in before dinner.  Half an hour later is was still raining but we headed towards the meeting place.  The side walks were flooded as the water from the higher areas had no where to go but down; we had to wade through mini-waterfalls!  Finally we met up with Cynthia and Karin, who had just had to buy an umbrella, but still no Jennifer, Jodi and Preston.  We had tried to arrange for a taxi to bring them to the restaurant but had missed them as they had already started to head down the hill.  I took everyone  to the restaurant and then went back to find them, no problem as they were almost at the bottom of the hill.

We had dinner at Konoba Kolona which started with Pursut, and cheese, followed by a grilled flank steak with garlic and grilled vegetables and then palicinke (crepes) for dessert.  The wine was good and the company wonderful; lots of chatting and laughing.  Mary Beth's flight arrived at 7:30pm and she was able to join us for a glass of wine but had just come off a gourmet food tour in Italy so was not really hungry.  Chris and Gitta were suppose to arrive at 8:35pm but their flight must have been delayed as they did not get to their accommodations until 9:45pm.  It was still raining when we left dinner but not like earlier so we were able to walk back up the hill to our rooms.