We recently visited the lovely Branislav Dešković art gallery in Bol, and really enjoyed seeing some local art. Bol, of course, is on the south shore of Brač, an easy day trip from Jelsa. The art gallery is housed in an old renaissance-baroque palace (dating back to 1694), right on the waterfront. Inside the courtyard…
Visiting Bol on the neighbouring island of Brač is an easy day trip from Jelsa. The two towns practically face each other across the narrow channel of sea dividing the islands. Most visitors to Bol will be heading for the iconic Zlatni Rat beach, or Golden Horn in English. That is indeed an impressively beautiful…
The Pakleni otoci lie off the south coast of Hvar, towards the western end. It’s a short expedition by boat to visit any one of this chain of islands, just take your pick from the choice of excursion vessels and taxiboats lining the waterfront in Hvar town. For those with their own yacht, of course,…
It’s been an absolute joy to spend time with the coastal rocks of Hvar, looking closely into the crevasses and shadows. I notice that as I start each painting, they seem to me more like mountains and I have to carve them up into mere blocks. And what an endless variety of rocks there are!…
It seems that some people can count, and it was noticed in my earlier post that I was only showing #2 and 3 in the rock series. Where was the first one? Well, yes, #1 was a bit of a problem child. As usual when I start a new subject, the first one has a…
Now here’s a challenge – what can you paint with 3 small brushes and a limited range of colours that tends to the cool side? That’s the problem I find myself facing as I completely forgot to bring my usual assortment of brushes! Not only that, but the bag of paint tubes I was depending…
Tucked away in a little backstreet of Hvar town is a lovely walled garden. Back in 1530, it was built as the summer residence of Hannibal Lucić, spent a good few years derelict and is now coming back to life as the Hvar Heritage Museum. Hanibal Lucić was a lawyer, in charge of local works…
Dry stone walls are as much part of the landscape here on Hvar as they are in my native Scotland. Over there, they pretty much hold sheep in, but on the Dalmatian coast they’re entirely necessary to hold in the soil. There would simply be no agriculture in this steep, karst environment without the back-breaking…
It’s awfully easy to depend on taking photographs when you travel. We all do it. It’s a quick way to capture what you see, and wonderful to have an album to look back on later. But I have to tell you, sketching is better! You have to look longer, pay more attention, and think about…
There are lions on Hvar. You can see them lurking on walls and gateways, looking out with a rather pained expression. It’s the symbol of St Mark, the winged lion of Venice, showing that this island was once part of the Venetian empire. From 1278, when the locals petitioned Venice for protection from the pirates,…
Go Hvar 
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