Ruža Crvena (or sometimes Ružo Crvena) is one of the most popular songs for klapa groups, with its haunting melody and poignant words. It sounds fantastic in 4-part harmony, and we all love to sing along with the chorus. You’d think it was a traditional Dalmatian song, but no, it was actually composed in the early…
September is harvest season on Hvar! You can smell it in the air, you can hear the clatter of the processing equipment, and everyone, it seems, is up early and picking grapes. It’s known here as “jematva”, elsewhere in Croatia as “berba”. Once the summer tourist season ends, everyone turns into a winemaker!
Local artist Marinka Radež is holding an exhibition and sale of her beautiful watercolours in the Zvijezda Mora church / gallery in Hvar town – if you’re anywhere in the area, do go and see them!
Our schedule for this year was shuffled a little from the original plan, so it was on Sunday that we visited local artist Marinka in her studio. As this was our last day, it was a perfect opportunity to finish up paintings and hold our final review. It was lovely to see Marinka’s watercolours too,…
It’s been a busy week for the artists, and with the weather heating up again it’s time to head for the beach. It’s a short walk around the coast to Soline, where we can find a shady spot under the trees. Four of us go round in the morning, with another couple joining us for lunch at the nearby cafe. In the evening, we drive up to Pitve for our special dinner at Dvor Duboković, complete with live musicians.
Hvar is the island of wine, and in many vineyards the grapes are ripening, almost ready for harvest. Our 5th day of painting took us right in amongst some old vines, near the village of Svirče. As vineyards go, this one is rather impressive, mostly large rocks with pockets of soil for the vines. Around…
After our trip to the country yesterday, it was was off to the big city today! Hvar may be quite small compared to, say, Split but it sure feels like a bustling metropolis after our other locations. The day starts off overcast, but soon brightens up into sunshine. Our base is Mizarola, in the main…
For our third day of painting, we took the road up to the seasonal village of Humac. It’s a very pretty drive, with sweeping views over the Brač channel and much easier to navigate the road after the recent improvements. Humac itself is a farming village, the houses built by the folks of Vrisnik and…
Day two of the retreat saw us in Stari Grad, the oldest town on the island, and indeed one of the oldest in Europe. As the former Greek colony of Faros, this place was already old in the 16th century, when Petar Hektorović built his summer residence here. Tvrdalj was originally on the waterfront, bristling…
I like to begin our artist retreat with an introduction to Vrboska, our base for the week. Much grumbling amongst the troops as I explained the previous night that we’d be meeting at 6:30am for our morning walk, cameras at the ready! This is, in fact, shortly after sunrise, and by far the best time…
Go Hvar 
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