Sketching and Painting Holidays
There’s nowhere quite like the Dolomites. Towering columns of orange-grey and jagged, ochre pinnacles stretch impossibly into the misty clouds, where the last remnants of snow sparkle deep in the crevicies. The still waters of Alpine lakes reflect the spruce trees, while dwarf pine and azalea line the stony paths. It’s been a few years … Read more
Where does my love of islands come from? Is it inate, from being born and raised on a large one of sorts, albeit encompassing several countries? Or from my more recent past, living on Tanera Mhor (one of the Summer Isles), during four extraordinarily happy years? When I had the chance to visit the Isle … Read more
Many people of a certain age will remember the Cadbury’s flake advert of the early 70’s, in which a young woman in a floaty dress sat herself daintily down in the middle of a cornfield with her watercolours. It began to rain, but instead of hastily packing up and making a dash for it, she … Read more
Azwu bzef: A lot of wind. Too much wind. Enough wind; more than enough … more wind than you would ever want to encounter in the middle of a desert. ‘You are so lucky.’ Hamid, our Moroccan driver, always tells me when a sketching trip has ended without climatic hitch. According to him, March is … Read more
It’s as if I’ve never been away. The sticky heat; the salty waves, warm as a summer bath, and the blue-black belch of the tuk tuks as they scurry back and forth between Banderanaike airport and Negombo ‘beach-side’. It’s January, it’s a new year; it’s high season and tourists are arriving by the plane-load after … Read more
As I take my Christmas Day lunch out of the freezer, with rather more excitement than you might imagine, I do wonder if I’ve become just a little obsessed. It’s a large takeaway curry that I bought from our closest Indian restaurant, which is in Ullapool, thirty-six miles away. There’s enough to feed several people, … Read more
Vistas Sketching Holidays would like to wish all clients past, present and future, a peaceful and enjoyable festive period, wherever you find yourselves. From a very wet and windy Lochinver, I am very much looking forward to feeling the sun on my back and enjoying some beautiful places with some of you. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: From … Read more
Our skin is brown, our sketchbooks full as another ‘Mists of Time’ itinerary on beautiful La Gomera has come to a close. Our first return since March 2023, when we arrived back into the UK with flights being cancelled and borders closing behind us, I was delighted and somewhat relieved to find the island unchanged, … Read more
Every time I receive an enquiry from someone in a warmer climate asking about a sketching holiday, in Scotland, ‘this year’ – ie, during deepest, darkest winter – it always makes me smile. Perhaps they have not quite realised that Vistas holidays take place outside, in the landscape, and if the landscape is unavailable (behind … Read more
Last Saturday morning I was woken by the ping of my phone as a message came though. It was from my friend Jane, so I rubbed my eyes and opened it, wondering if she was heading into the village and wanted to meet for coffee. I would have slept a little longer if I could … Read more
