Being now happily settled into Vrboska, on Tuesday we set off to paint in the oldest town on the island – Stari Grad. Our sites for today would reflect the history of this place and the legacy of the ancient Greek and Roman settlers. We started around 9:30, intending to visit the Dominican Monastery, which…
Day One of our artist retreat began with an early morning walk around Vrboska to orient everyone. I wanted to cover the practicalities of staying here as well as giving the opportunity to take photographs as the sun comes up. It is the absolute best time to be out and about with a camera, everything…
This week has been a very exciting one for me – I’ve been able to share the lovely places, people and experiences of this island with some wonderful artists from California. We’ve explored some gorgeous locations armed with sketch books, cameras and paints. We’ve walked for miles, enjoyed some fantastic meals, great wine, and the…
This morning, at Total Hvar HQ in Jelsa, we were treated to a behind the scenes look at the filming of Total Hvar’s language lesson series. If you haven’t been following along as the Professor gives us the benefit of his expertise in the Hvar dialect, you’ve missed one of the cultural highlights of the…
Every so often, if I have a glass of wine as I’m painting, I’ll accidentally go to dip my brush in the wrong container. The opposite is also true, and I actually took a good swig of my paint water – but only once, I’ve been a lot more careful since! So I was extremely…
The Jelsa wine festival continued on day 2 with some traditional fun and games. First up, a donkey race. Until very recently, donkeys did a lot of the heavy lifting around here. Every family would have one, and you can tell that many of the old routes through the hills are suitable only for people…
Jelsa, it seems, can throw a really good party. Last night’s festival of wine and Jazz was a fine evening’s entertainment in a lovely setting. The entire waterfront was sparkling as we arrived shortly after the 8pm start. We strolled around, looking to see what was where, enjoying the wafting smells of food being prepared…
Following coffee at Cafe Splendid in Jelsa one morning, on the way back to the car we happened upon a sign for an arts and crafts fair. This had been part of the May Fair celebrations which had been held when we weren’t able to go, so we were delighted to find it had been…
Legend has it that the skill of making lace from agave leaves arrived from the Canary Islands around the mid-nineteenth century. A seaman brought back a sample of Tenerife lace from his latest trip, you could imagine as a gift for his sister, who may have been a nun, or attended convent school. The sister…
A birthday is a perfect excuse for eating somewhere special – maybe even somewhere new. We’d read about the Zlatna Školjka (Golden Shell) in Hvar town, and how the chef is part of the “slow food” movement. Now that doesn’t mean you’ll still be waiting for your starter a couple of hours after ordering, but…
Go Hvar 
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