Red and Blue in Padova

Lorenzo and Michael are reviving Red&blue and now Paolo Nannini is working with us. Paolo is a ceramic artist extraordinaire

The Red and Blue Art Factory

Bluer and Eldridge painting together last weekend in 33C heat. Look like elves don't they?

They play chess when waiting for the paint to dry; are fed titbits and cool drinks by Liliana when flagging, and visited occasionally by Minu and Malf. 

Ceramacist Paolo Nannini is soon to arrive with Bluer's fired pots.

Summer at The Blue and Red Art Factory

Can't beat it

Our painting retreat

Micer and Bluer are reactivated!
We spent 4 days painting together in Micer's studio in Le Marche.
Here's one

And another

This one is rather large
We just do stuff!
And always know when to stop
Bad news is he beat me 10 games to 2 and one draw...at chess

What’s happening this summer in Italy?

Well. I ‘m sure glad you asked, ‘cos we have two workshops (we being me and the chaps) and here they are

This in the glorious wild lands of Northern Tuscany.
And then for the creative soul searchers, we have an amazing event
In Montefiore, The 4th of our Starstone Adventures
Both in June. Heady times!

Coaches Lunches

Held on the 1st Wednesday of every month, at the prestigious RSA in London, our Coaches Lunches will delight you with their range of tasty topics, delivered by our radical selection of inspiring speakers.

Full details on www.starstone.me

Where you will also find details of our ‘Journeys in Creativity’; retreats in Italy and UK during 2011.

 

Creativity in Sant’Ippolito

Dear friends,

I am running a Creativity weekend in March, another experimental workshop for a small number of people; similar to my session last Spring in Appignano.

It’s experimental in that sense that I want us together to try out new ideas, strategies I will use in Starstone sessions later in the year.

The venue will be our home at Sambuco in Le Marche and for a small group of about 8 people. It will be hands on stuff; making a mess, playing, lots of fun and laughter (guaranteed).

As well as playing like children we will also walk together, cook together, relax and delight in each others’ company.

Dates; Saturday and Sunday March 19^th and 20th

The total cost is E125 to include meals, accommodation and workshop.

For those coming from UK, extra days B&B can be arranged. Ryanair flights are less than E20 single at this time.

For those of you who don’t know Sambuco and our beautiful area of Le Marche, here’s our Sant’Ippolito website http://sibillinislow.com/Sibillini_Slow/Welcome.html

I do hope this finds you well and I send you my very best wishes for the New Year.

Michael

Cari amici,
Sto organizzando un week-end di Creatività in Marzo, per un numero limitato di persone, un ‘altro workshop sperimentale simile a quello organizzato in Appignano la primavera scorsa .
Sarà sperimentale nel senso che insieme tireremo fuori e proveremo nuove idee, questo workshop sarà un’anteprima dei prossimi corsi che terrò con Startstone in Autunno in Italia e in UK .

La sede sarà la nostra casa il Sambuco nelle Marche il gruppo sarà massimo di 8 persone .

Ci autogestiremo, parteciperemo attivamente a tutte le attività , faremo un sacco di disordine e giocheremo , il divertimento e le risate saranno garantite Ma, oltre a giocare come i bambini cucineremo e ci rilasseremo e faremo delle belle passeggiate , sarà un vero piacere stare in compagnia e ritrovarsi bambini.

Date: Sabato e Domenica 19 Marzo e 2011

Il costo totale è di Euro 125,00 incluso vitto e alloggio
Per chi viene da Regno Unito, c’è la possibilità di organizzare giorni extra nel nostro B&B.

Per quelli di voi che non conoscono “Il Sambuco” e la nostra bellissima area nelle Marche, ecco il nostro sito web http://sibillinislow.com/Sibillini_Slow/Welcome.html

Spero che questa idea vi piaccia, che veniate numerosi con l’intento di divertirvi , nel frattempo vi faccio i miei migliori auguri per il nuovo anno.
Michael

Creativity Voyages

StarStone is hosting three workshops in 2011, two in Italy at Montefiore, Le Marche and one in UK, in Norfolk.
Each of the workshops are complete Creative Journeys
Our extraordinary workshops are designed to rekindle your creativity. You will begin the exciting journey of revitalising those parts of yourself which may have fallen asleep over time. Your StarStone facilitators will re-awaken and challenge you, so that you will fully connect with the very essence of your original creative self.
Montefiore June 16th to 19th… RETREAT
The purpose of this retreat weekend is to find the still point that reveals everything as it is in our lives up until now. We step into that point through disengaging, stepping back, creating space, witnessing, unplugging and un-winding. Paradoxically, through this process, we find we are revitalised and see what is really important, what we can bring to the fore that will refocus us and create the next stage of our lives.
Montefiore Sept 15th to 18th… REFLECT
In this refreshing and challenging retreat we touch upon the very essence and significance of living within the present ‘time now’. As we reach that still point of the present moment, we see our selves reflected back through the eyes of the world around us; we experience what it is to be fully living in the present and how this is in fact the realm in which creativity waits for us, the feeding ground for poetry, music, painting, (indeed all the expressive arts), and where neither past nor future hold sway.
Voewood, Norfolk December 9th to 11th… EVOLVE (to be confirmed)
The focus of this retreat is individual evolution. To evolve is to begin to create ourselves as a clearer expression of our real and authentic essence. To thus finally evolve as a creative being, seeing each day as a creative opportunity where we become the master of your fate and metamorphasise into something new. What is it we can become? Anything and everything of course. It is where we begin to create a whole new cycle in our existence.
StarStone retreats are designed to take you on an adventurous voyage of discovery. Join us and explore the reflections of your past, the mirror of your present and the image of your future.

For more details email; michael@starstone.me, or tel+39.3283535358

New Year almost

Guess this’ll be my final painting for 2010.

It’s about water and light but I suspect, too, that its existence has something to do with my visit to The British Tate and Turner’s exhibition there. Probably.

Snow’s here

Hope it doesn’t last though, gotta get over those mountains and snow chains are dangerous.

This is a new painting inspired by a visit to the Tate a few weeks back. Turner struggled with his paintings and so I thought I’d do the same. This one was a fight

Not much different form what’s going on outside. Minus 3 and the stuff is settling ominously.

Yet another

I shall have to give this painting lark a rest.

There's not much room left in the house, but

I suppose paintings in the hall are better than

prams. selling more could be a solution

Temperature

Drops from 35C to 23C.. and which do I prefer having cool English blood?

in riferimento a: Pagina iniziale di Mozilla Firefox (visualizza su Google Sidewiki)

Sweet memories

My photographs are not just photographs.

Now that’s an amazing statement Mice!

Yes, and somewhat simplistic, I know, I know.

Let me put it this way. They are a sort of external hard disc of my mind and I can shut my eyes and summon up every painting and photograph that I have ever created.

And what is more…

Yes Yes Yes ?

If I had never created them, my life would not be as it is now.

Whoa!. Heavy stuff!

Not really no. You see, what we create, what we create beyond ourselves, enriches us.

Let me give an example.

I was at the Printer’s this morning in Tolentino printing this image, testing again the limit of Mauro’s patience (he my print expert on RAW and Nikon imaging programme) And I asked him about a course he’d just finished on master printing. Cheekily I asked him if they ever, in these classes, talked about the experience, the actuality, of taking photographs. He span around at me in his swivel chair and said ‘Look, the first thing we are always told in these classes, is that the image you take is what is of supreme importance. It starts here. And to never attempt to work on an image that isn’t good, your best’

Nice that!

So this image above, for me, is about that instance of recognition, where you feel yourself part of what you are photographing. Where duality dissolves ;where you absorb the trees as they themselves absorb the first moister from their roots as winter releases then tenderly from its grip.

And now that creation is part of me; the trees, the dampness, the mist, the sky.

And that’s what is so marvelous about the medium.

Applaud trees and skies

 

Mice likes this Tuncay lady

Can’t wait to meet her. Picked up my small prints today.

And they’re rather tasty

 

Sex, lies and name dropping

This is a picture of an Oak tree which lives at the bottom of my garden.

It was taken with my telefonino (i.e. mobile) so it was a bit hit and miss.

What would Ansel have said, I wonder? Ansel? Oh, yes, I'm referring to Ansel Adams.

You’ve met Ansel Adams?

Yeah, yeah, a few times, he was a friend of my mate George who looked after me in California where I lived for a while.

OOH!

Yes, I mention him not because I’m name dropping but because of the story he told us about his famous

‘Moon over Sierra Nevada’ photograph, taken when he and Edward Weston and the whole West Coast States bunch were

rolling down to Arizona in a drunken haze. Fact was, he just took a deep breath in the dark and took a divine guess at the exposure.

Was as surprised as a moonbeam that it came out, let alone that it was to become an icon and milestone in the history of photography.

Divine guess, I like that, well done Mice.

Lovely guy, no pretentions, very kind and gentle.

Like Tony Snowdon.

What you’ve met him too?

Yeah, did all the backdrop design for him on a Isse Mayake shoot in London

Lovely guy, thoughtful, kind and patient.

Like Cartier Bresson and Buckminster Fuller.

Huh? WWahwa?

And in November, I met (after not having seen him for years), Oliviera Toscani, an old friend from those hippy days.

But hey! This is beginning to sound like name dropping and that just isn’t my style at all.

All I really want to say is that photographers are really nice, humble people.

Like me and Steve.

Oh, and modest too.

Steve's a bit of a name dropper though, between you and me!

Michael, 15th May 2010

The Meteorite

OK, what’s this?

A truffle!

No!

Look, you’re not gonna guess, so I’ll tell you. It’s a meteorite, found on the mountain this Sunday when we trekked up Mt Amandola with our CAI group (Club Alpini Italia) and were rewarded with a the most spectacular views across the hilltop towns of Le Marche to the sea, as well as a meteorite. Isn’t that marvellous though? To find a meteorite? We climbed to about 2000m,

 

 

 

 

……….ate a banana and a packet of crisps (classic) and rested awhile on one of the peaks before climbing down slowly to the trattoria where we’d left our cars. Then a long and dozy lunch. And the day before I was at the sea spending the morning costing our June workshop with Patrizia the owner of I Cigni, . It was almost tropical in comparison.

 

 

This part of Le Marche is where the mountains pushed towards the sea millions of years ago. In fact a great part of the sea was itself thrust up trapping a species of red shrimp in what is now a glacial lake (Lago di Pilato) in the process. Red shrimps and meteorites.

So, lucky we are, to have the mountains and the sea within a short driving distance of each other.

So, here’s an idea. Spend a fantastic weekend on our workshop and spend the rest of the week touring this beautiful area; even go meteorite hunting up in the Sibillini mountains. You’ll find one, you will, with a bit of guidance.

Michael interviewed by Michelle Rumney

Quiet a sobering experience I found it to be

http://www.roomontheedge.com/2010/03/interview-with-michael-eldridge-artist-photographer-creativity-coach/

Our flyer for Tuscany

Get subscribers

at last

The new Physik Garden site is up. www.physikgarden.com
Do have a peep.
What are Lorenzo and I up to with Red and Blue.
Well, we are intending to work together again down at his pad in Puglia in Sept.
but he's such a busy boy.. let's hope he can make it.

Eldridge's paintings

Yes, at last, my web site is up.
Have a look on www.michaeleldridge.eu