Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Jane
Completed Portrait
Jane: Next Steps
Jane: New Portrait
Vanesha: Finished Portrait
Vanessa's Portrait
Ruth's Portrait
Lunch, San Lorenzo
Hotel Christmas Tree
Dinner at the Dorchester
Birthday
Happy Halloween!
Sacre-Coeur
Montmartre by Night
Restaurant Le Consulat
Artists Quarter
Montmartre by Day
Louvre Museum
Pyramid
Cathedral
Notre Dame
Paris
Eiffel Tower
Peter in an Irish Pub
View from our room in Donegal
Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin
Entrance to the City of Ek-Balaam
Tlaloc God of the Rain
Mouth of the Serpent
Angel in Ek-Balaam site
Sculptures in Ek-Balaam
Ek-Balaam
Man on a Ledge
View from our room
Cancun
Hotel Beach
Cancun
Enjoying the sunshine
Ek-Balaam site
Sunset from our room.
Sunset. View from our hotel room.
Posing with a stolen apple.
"Mmm, Cheese!"
"No Mr Blair, I am not Spanish"
"What do you think, M. Sarkozy?"
Farmland
The Shrewsbury Road
Pastels
Farmland
Pastels
Other side of kitchen.
New kitchen
Merida, Mexico
Merida, Mexico
Peter, Maria and Richard Hammond
A Romantic Cruise
Lunch at Merida
Lunch at Cancun
Guest bedroom fireplace
Beams in Office
Master Bedroom fireplace
Patty Spilsbury, my sister
Not exactly a picnic
Towards the Farm
Back of our house
At the back of our home
Snow scenes at home
My son Hector Birchwood meeting Mrs Thatcher.
Hygeia
Work in Progress
Thanks to our camera crew for the photo
.jpg)
Filming in Ireland: Heir Hunters
.jpg)
Painting in Progress
Work in Progress
Floodlit Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral, Evening
Early Evening in Lincoln
Painted when I was 13 years old.
Venice
More detail
Our House
Another show for Heir Hunters.
Filming at the Bear
Bear Hotel, Hungerford
Maria, Victoria and Peter
Victoria
Interview
Filming at Denbigh Record Office
Formal night on the 2010 cruise
Black Poodle
The younger Leonardo
Friends from El Salvador in Madrid.
Charlie 2
Sweet Dreams
Charlie
Cat-nap
The Adoration pf the Shepherds
Guido Reni (1575 - 1642)
Lough Rynn Castle Hotel
Leonardo da Vinci
Dog2
Dog
Maria
The Crystal Palace in El Retiro Park
The Royal Palace
The Plaza Mayor
La Cibeles Fountain and the Post Office
The River Manzanares and the Cathedral
Monastery of the Escorial, Spain.
The Royal Palace, Spain.
Birthday Celebration.
Birthday Celebration
Like the wine, I get better with the years.
Maria Spilsbury's Painting
Nudes
Nudes
Nudes
View from our Balcony
Neptune Fountain
Red Roses
View from the back of my House
View from my House
Sra Dina de Spilsbury
My Mother
Port of Isla Mujeres
Our hotel beach
View from Tulum
Tulum
Turtles
Tulum near Cancun, Mexico
Detail of the same Church
La Merced Church, Antigua, Guatemala
La Merced Church, Antigua
Earthquake damage
Church of the Cross
Another Guatemalan Church.
Cathedral, Antigua Guatemala
Parrot and me
Courtyard, Convento Hotel Antigua
Room at Convento Hotel Antigua
Room at Convento Hotel Antigua
Mother and Child
Flowers
About Me
- Maria
- Maria Spilsbury Birchwood started painting at an early age at the studio of the Spanish painter Don Valero Lecha and the muralist Violeta Bonilla, pupil to the great Mexican painter, Diego de Rivera. She received her first commission at the age of 13: a commission to paint a bullfight.When she was in her teens, she entered a competition and learned that she had won first prize. She was presented to the sponsor of the competition,who offered her a scholarship on behalf of the Dante Alligheri Society to study art in Rome. Maria continued her painting studies in Madrid, Spain at the school of San Fernando under the tutelage of the foremost landscape painter Jose Sanchez Carralero. She moved to England where, in 1982, she married forensic genealogist Peter Birchwood. Over the years, Maria has exhibited her work widely in different countries; at the Barbican Gallery in London, in California where she worked as a scenic artist on theatrical backdrops, Bedfordshire, and Wales, where she now lives. A recent commission was to paint the portrait of Liberal Member of Parliament Lembit Opik. The portrait is now hanging in the House of Commons.
Flowers in a Vase
14 comments:
Maria, I am very flattered that you have put up my pictures here .. feels like they are in print, or something similar. The ice bergs are huge, bigger than the perspective that you see here. I also like the titles you have given the photos, thank you!
It was my pleasure, Victoria. The glaciers do look bigger on the original photos you sent me, but in this format, the originals always shrink ! so it is more difficult to appreciate how big they really are here. I could see that very well on the originals you sent, even when they did not have a standing figure to judge the human scale; nevertheless we are able see the sun in relation to the icebergs and get a good idea.
Hallo Maria and Victoria
Thanks so much for your kind remarks about the poems. I have only just got back online - some workmen cut through all the phone cables.
I love the pictures of the icebergs. Odd to think that we only see the top 10% or so. Also the penguins, with the butler on his way to apologise for the dinner going cold.
Ah yes, we can only see 10% and this 10% already looks like a huge mountain. I don't really think I would like to be left stranded there.
A couple of years ago, when we did our cruise, some people did not come in time to catch the tour bus back to the ship so they were left behind and the ship unmoored from the shore without them. 15 minutes later, when they finally turned up, we could see them from our balcony arriving at the harbour in a taxi, but it was too late.
Yes Maria, it can be an expensive mistake to arrive late. As you would know the passengers then have to make their own way (and pay) to reboard the ship at the next port. It actually happens more often than you think. The only way to be late and be ok is to be on a tour that is organised through the ship, and if the bus breaks down or something unforeseen happens, then they must wait for you.
Have a very happy Easter Maria and Robert, try not to eat too much chocolate Robert ...
Thank you Victoria, I didn't know that. These people were foolish enough to let the tour bus go, saying they would make their own way back to the ship but of course, they took too long, so I suppose they had to buy new pyjamas and stay at a hotel for the night.
And you too, Victoria have a happy Easter. Peter and I will be in Spain for a few days and in there, it is mostly processions carrying Christ on the Cross as they go through the streets.
A Happy Easter, Maria and Victoria. I used to love Easter eggs as a kid. It was the same chocolate one had in ordinary chocolate bars, but it tasted better. I think that was maybe because the chocolate was thinner. I used to notice that the cheaper, thinner bars tasted better than a bar of the same brand that was double the price and thicker.
Yes that is true. But now I prefer real black chocolates without the milk. The Cadbury " chocolate " tastes different because the percentage of real chocolate is a lot less. The manufacturers fill it with cocoa butter, which is a by product of chocolate and not the real thing at all. At one point, Cadbury was being forced to re-name their product and not use the word: chocolate.
Have a happy Easter Robert ! and as Victoria said: Do not eat too many chocolates.
Oh, I find I can never eat too many chocolates. Hee, hee.
Robert I have fond memories of the thin chocolate also, from the Easter eggs and the thin bars. A Cadbury threepence bar was much better than the thicker sixpence one .. and you could put the whole bar in your mouth at once, it was so good!
I wouldn't do that now of course ...
I made some Rocky Road this Easter,
I melt good quality chocolate and mix with marshmallows, turkish delight, pistachios, almonds and cranberries. It is so delicious, I say I am making it for others to enjoy, but seemed to eat most of it myself.
How did you enjoy Easter in Spain Maria?
Hi Victoria
I was given something similar at school once. A couple of girls made some chewy thing with rice crispies stuck to it. I really enjoyed it.
Yes, the small bars were threepence, then there was a sixpence one, and a really big one for a shilling. Tubs of ice cream were ninepence and came with a wooden spoon. Choc ices were ninepence. The fireworks could be sold loose and if you went in with a shilling it could take quite a while to work out how many bangers, rockets, crackers etc to get, because there were so many different permutations.
Hi Victoria & Robert !
My holy week in Spain was very pleasant and relaxing thank you. How was yours ? That recipe sounds very yummy Victoria !
Hi Maria and Robert,
Easter was not very holy, nor relaxing here .. had a big cleanup from too much stored stuff, a lot of it from when our son moved out, he has left so much and seems to avoid returning to sort it all out.
Only one day off to visit family and eat too much chocolate.
Robert I remember buying fireworks like that also, I used to like the fancy spray types and rockets. My brothers would go for the bangers (here we called them bungers) .. tom thumbs, penny bungers and the really big tupenny bungers.
Fireworks are illegal here now for individuals, I think you can apply for a permit for a special occasion. Possibly one state here they may still be legal, maybe the Northern Territory or the ACT.
Hi Victoria,
Did you go on a cruise to Antartica?Id imagine the views were pretty spectacular,particularly interesting to me at the moment cos Im reading" Captain Scotts last voyage-the journals".....nice photos by the way.
Post a Comment