Category: Marco Polo

It takes five days to cross the Atlantic, which means lots of sea-days and lots of watercolour classes. This morning, after breakfast, and after grabbing a bit of fresh air on deck (I haven’t seen any flying fish yet, but apparently, they have been spotted), I produced my first painting from the trip; ‘Boats in Mindelo’. I swapped the milky,...

Today, we arrived in Mindelo, on the island of St Vincent, in the the Cape Verde island chain. It was windier than I’ve ever seen it before, and much hazier; this is because of sand in the air, coming across, West, from the Sahara Desert (apparently). Other than that, Mindelo was, as Mindelo always is; a little rough at at...

My workshops today were on Summer Trees, and I’m happy to say that all three classes went off without incident. No tantrums or arguments – a few people swapped times, which seemed to even things out to everyone’s satisfaction – everybody happy, and here’s the proof… Tonight’s show was ‘Out of Africa’; a colourful, energetic show, which I’ve seen before...

Today I taught them Winter Trees; most seemed to find it all a lot less stressful than the previous session, which in turn makes it all less stressful for me. I am currently running three groups; 1pm, 2:30pm and 4pm. I usually let the first group in at about 10 minutes to 1, give or take. While I’m setting up,...

Today, we arrived in Funchal, Madeira. It was a short visit, with an early 7am, arrival, but also an early afternoon departure (2pm), so I decided to keep my plans simple. After breakfast, I headed shoreside with the intention of walking into Funchal; a 20-30 minute walk. By the quayside, however, a free shuttle bus was about to leave, so...