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Broadstairs Portrait Painting Weekend

On Saturday 13th March 2010, was my long awaited visit to Broadstairs, Kent. The weekend was to be spent doing 2 days of portrait painting with Margaret Foreman RA at Flint House.

I had never been to Broadstairs before, so it was exciting to go down to a new area of unexplored England. I googled Broadstairs before I left and found out that there were some wonderful little chi chi shops, long expanses of beach, a bandstand and very quaint streets with old victorian villa houses crowded in rows, to form a very English seaside town.

Broadstairs is so accessible from London. I prebooked a Express train from Kings Cross St Pancras and the journey took an amazing 1hour 20 mins. I stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast where I was welcomed by the wonderful Nora Rowlands. She was just terrific, and had a lot of fun conversations with her. Just round the corner from Flint House was a minute cinema, where there was an evening performance of Alice in Wonderland with the gorgeous Johnny Depp.

My weekend of painting flew past and in between intense painting sessions trying to capture the patient Bernie, who was just the perfect model, we tasted Margaret's gourmet omelettes which were out of this world, and entertained by lots of banter and red wine!

I felt so released by doing this course. Margaret taught how to see the facial structure in detail and how to look at the face from all viewpoints. She was a brilliant teacher and wonderfully talented artist. I am now hoping to go back again next year or sooner!

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