Now this is what I call skill! Wow, hitting that little orifice from so far away. I guess the motivation is what’s inside this Porron?

PORRON definition: Curious little Spanish thing from which a host or hostess may expect you to drink in order to save plastic cups. A glass watering can for wine – passed from person to person since nary a lip shall meet the tip.

To drink from a porron, a beginner starts by bringing the spout very close to his mouth and tilts it forward slowly so the beak points towards the teeth. Once the liquid starts coming out, the porró is pulled away from the face while the drinker looks up. To finish drinking, a beginner lowers the porró and brings it back down and closer to the mouth again before stopping, quickly tilting the spout up at the last moment so there is no spillage.

A regular user can start and stop drinking from the porró with the spout held at a distance without spilling a drop. Obviously, these participants are quite skilled. It’s not the first time they’ve drained the old Porron.

But not everyone is a fan.

George Orwell described a porron in Homage to Catalonia:

…and drank out of a dreadful thing called a porron. A porron is a sort of glass bottle with a pointed spout from which a thin jet of wine spurts out whenever you tip it up; you can thus drink from a distance, without touching it with your lips, and it can be passed from hand to hand. I went on strike and demanded a drinking-cup as soon as I saw a porron in use. To my eye the things were altogether too like bed-pans, especially when they were filled with white wine.

Ahhhh….the things you learn on Thursdays. I’ll bet you can barely wait until next week. 🙂

So,yet another valuable skill for a journey workshop! All joking aside, all you need to join us on a painting trip is the desire to do it. Probably 80% of the participants going on a painting trip are doing it for the very first time. Some have a lot of painting experience, while others do not. Most have never drawn much on their own, much less painted plein air. That is my job as a teacher – to show you how! Your only job as a student is to come along and have the time of your life!

Because most people have never been on a trip such as this, we want to see all that we can! Generally, we base ourselves in one spot…somewhere very comfy and close to gelato. From there we can venture out most days to see one lovely village after another, where we will paint, shop, eat gelato or just about anything else our hearts desire. We are a small enough group to travel in two vans, so we can pick up and go whenever and wherever we wish.

We also have a studio space from which we can work in if we wish…the best of both worlds. You have no commitments other than making it to the dinner table every day, enjoying the leisurely life of a traveler, being in the company of like-minded artists…and best of all, painting in a wonderful environment. It’s pretty cool.

So, I hope that you’ve taken notes on this month’s posts about what you’ll need, because you may just find that you’ll be packing your bag for such a trip. Impossible? Nothing is impossible. IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, IT CAN HAPPEN. And I have been dreaming about this for some time now. IT is coming…on June 1st…and it’s not even a Tuesday. Can you wait until then? Yes, we must because the CHALLENGE starts this Saturday.

On March 1, our 30 day “Draw in your Journal every day for 30 days” Challenge begins! Therefore, since I’ll be writing a post every single day in March, I won’t be doing one specific for Tips on Tuesday.

It’s not too late to join us! Sign up HERE. We begin March 1st, which is Saturday.

Good luck to the over 200 of you who have signed up! I am amazed and ready to roll. I am sending out a preliminary welcome letter. If you haven’t gotten it by the time you read this, then you may not be signed up. Tell me about it in the comment box below and I’ll be sure you’re signed up.

Thank you so much for reading.

Kathie