Vietnam

Not a painting trip but a trip with Frank and friends. It would be a wonderful place to paint, maybe a bit tricky staying out of everyone’s way as it’s so busy.
This is such a wonderful country with such friendly happy people.

First stop was Hanoi
Saturday 22nd February
Arrived at Sofitel after 24 travelling, had quick shower and then out to explore. Needed to eat so found a Sky Bar. Was hoping to see a good sunset but the sun just sank and it got dark. A lovely light though.

Happy Hour at Sky bar

Fresh Fish anyone?

A walk along the railway line

Mobile fruit shop

Water puppet show

A short trip on the local train
It had to be done 😁

Fabulous views over Hoian from the sky bar

The local butcher

We enjoyed wandering the old quarters which were about half a mile from hotel. The street food was very good but mostly ate on the roof tops. Went to Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and gardens. Took rickshaw ride round old quarter,  great fun. We learnt how to cross the road, there are mopeds, scooters and bikes everywhere, they don’t stop so you have to just step out and walk slowly across as they drive round you. A bit worrying the the first few times.



Halong Bay
Monday 24th February
Next stop was a cruise around Halong Bay on an Azalea ship. There were only 28 of us on board. Rooms were surprisingly spacious.

Azalea Cruise ship

Our cabin

A view of the bay

We were three nights on board. We had a couple of trips to Cat Ba island. The first was to caves high up. We climbed loads of steps, the caves were only a metre high in places. I wish we had known but we managed ok. Another trip via the tender was a village, nothing exciting but still quite interesting

Wednesday 26th February
Hoi An
After flight from Hanoi to Da Nang we arrived early evening at Boutique Hotel Hoi An.
Fabulous place. We ventured out for a meal at Red Chilli, recommended on Trip Advisor. We weren’t disappointed, the meal was fabulous. There were a big crowd of Vietnamese tennis players booked in. We were warned it could get noisy - it did. They were all lovely and kept coming to say sorry for the noise. Even bought us beers. It all added to the great atmosphere.
 One of the guys was a tour leader and we arranged for him to take us to My Son in his car.

RedChilli restaurant 

Time Flies

So much has happened in the last year and a bit that I couldn't possibly put it all into a blog without writing a book.

A recent trip to bath to see Peter Brown exhibition
L-R Valerie Pirlot, Mo, Maria Rose & Haidee-Jo Summers

First and foremost was the loss of our son, Nathan. A year last November he was diagnosed with stage four cancer. He was so brave and stayed strong and positive until the end. He contracted pneumonia and was unable to fight it off and died at the end of May last year, the day after his wedding anniversary. I am fortunate that his lovely wife and three young daughters live close by . He was so proud of those girls and he lives on through them. I won't go on about how I feel as this isn't the purpose of this blog. All I will say is that, no parent should have to go through the pain of losing a child at any age.

Nathan 1975 - 2019

The last post I made, way back in 2018, was leading up to the British Plein Air Painters exhibition at The Menier Gallery. I can report that this was an overwhelming success. Over 60 paintings were sold and feedback from the public was very positive. I thoroughly enjoyed working with such a brilliant group of artists. We hung the show ourselves and the feeling of camaraderie as we worked together was wonderful

Yours truly in charge of the wine

What a line up!!
L - R Chris Robinson, Roy Connelly, Tim King, Tony Dakin, Haidee-Jo Summers, Adebanji Alade, Micheal Richardson, Disy Simms-Hilditch, Valerie Pirlot, Maria Rose, Mo Teeuw, John Walsom, Andrew Roberts, John Stillman, Karl Terry, Trevor Chamberlain, David Pilgrim, Ben Hope, Adam Ralston, David Curtis, David Bachmann, Peter Brown
missing were Richard Pikesly, Ken Howard and Fred Cuming

So great was the success that I am pleased to announce that there will be another exhibition this year at The Mall Gallery. Plans are already afoot for promotion and we have a great team working on our social media pages and website

Here is our lovely poster designed by Valerie Pirlot

We have a great programme of events planned and several painting days where any artist can turn up and paint along with some of the group members. 

here is a list for your diary.

You will find a list of participating artists on our website britishpleinairpainters.co.uk 

Painting days

Saturday 18 April - MANCHESTER

Wednesday 29 April - SOMERSET BathThursday 14 May - DORSET Mudeford Quay
Saturday 13 June - NORFOLK Morston
Tuesday 11 August - LONDON Richmond

Saturday 30 May - OXFORD

Friday 26 June - SUFFOLK Southwold

Saturday 4 July - LINCOLNSHIRE Stamford

Saturday 25 July - NORTH YORKSHIRE Staithes

Saturday 22 August - EAST SUSSEX Rye

Saturday 12 September - LONDON St James Park

I hope to get to as many as I can and will post pictures here.

I do hope that you will be able to join us, just turn up on the day with all your painting gear and do come and say hello.