The days were full of sunlight - the
tanned bodies, the bright colourful
costumes and towels, and the purple
shadows beneath sunshades, the
deep emerald and prussian blues of
the sea infused my paintings; and in
the evenings the orange light on the
Peñon and the gorgeous sunsets, gold
and red streaking ultramarine clouds
piled up on a sky fading to delicate
shades of turquoise on the horizon
warmed my soul.
Holidays in Spain weren’t enough,
and after twenty years of teaching
we made our permanent home in
a whitewashed village amongst the
orange groves. It was, however, the
white walled village streets which
provided a canvas for purple patterns
of shadow, doors, windows and
flowered balconies which became the
main motive of my watercolours.
Another escapee from the daily
grind in our village was Gill, a nurse
tutor. She had retired early so looking
for a way of occupying her time with
something more useful than painting
under my tutorage she volunteered
to work in Uganda.
We followed her there for three
weeks, resulting in a number of
watercolour studies of the people and
the buildings.
When her next assignment came
up in Sri Lanka in 1998, naturally being
her groupies, we went there. She met
us off the plane and whisked us up to
the ancient capital of Kandy, site of
the famous Temple of the Tooth, and
installed us in a bungalow guesthouse
with the delightful Dunawile family;
a place which has since become to us
our second home in the world.
We paid the grand total of three
pounds a night for bed and breakfast.
You always know that you have
become part of the extended family
when you are invited to dine in the
kitchen. During that three weeks we
toured ancient cities, cave temples
and the World Heritage Site of Galle
Fort, where we stayed in the New
Oriental Hotel, reputed to be the oldest
hotel on the island. The peninsula of
Galle, had been fortified first by the
Portuguese but derives much of its
character from the Dutch occupation
with its verandahed houses and stone