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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
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Filming in Ireland: Heir Hunters
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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
17 comments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glNjsOHiBYs
SO IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY ROBERT ...
HAVE A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUT NOT TOO MANY QUALITY STREETS ..
ALL THE BEST
ps. I don't think my link has worked, as the colour has not changed .. it is good though!
Just realised, Robert you are a Gemini .. like Maria, but you have only just scraped into that sign. Or the other way to see it is that you are the first of the Geminis .. leading the way with your wit and poetry!
ENJOY YOUR DAY
And you are so young 29 ...
Gosh almost as young as me!
Victoria, Robertito ( little Robert ) is probably hiding under the blankets ! He is terribly shy. And he hates all this kind of attention. But he should know he is with friends who appreciate him and enjoy his company very much. Come on Rob, we know you are there reading this !
Maria, I did not know Robertito was so shy
or I would not have written so many posts .. to attract the attention he so dislikes. I am making dinner and trying to be quick, then thinking I should have said this and running back to the computer to write the next thing.
Maria, his shyness is probably just due to his so young age! .. he will grow out of it as he gets older.
Victoria, Apparently not. He has written me a private message to tell me he kept his birthday a secret at school - he didn't want to be given the bumps ! I asked Peter what did Robert mean by getting the bumps ? Peter told me that in school children used to hoist you from your arms and legs, up in the air and then bump you for every year old you were. So I suppose he would be getting 29 bumps today !
Ah, thank you Maria and Victoria. Yes, I did get the Beatles link, I copied it into the address box. I think I used to have the Beatles at birthday parties during musical chairs. The idea was to keep taking one chair away. Unfortunately I'm now of an age when I've noticed that they keep taking one Beatle away. Only two left now.
It wasn't just that they gave people the bumps. Anyone unfortnate enough to have their birthday on a Games day, was bumped in a large muddy puddle in the centre of the rugby pitch. Since my game plan at rugby was always to watch which way the ball was going and then go in the opposite direction, I normally got through the Games lessons unscathed, and keeping my birthday a secret helped me keep my shorts and jersey relatively clean.
Hi Robert !
Very sensible too. The nicotine patches was a little joke but I can see that the post did not arrive on time but basically, the present for you has music in it too. Classical music plus... chocs.. so there won't be room for any Quality Streets in your tummy.
Never mind... these will no doubt be on your hands tomorrow, when there is the natural downer of having the birthday over, so they will come exactly on time to pick up your mood high again. I hope you enjoy them and don't eat them all at once !
Hi Maria
I've emailed you.
Thank you so much. Blimey! I think Robertito is going shy again.
Happy birthdayy Robert!
Enjoy the 10,000 packs of cigarettes I sent you ,and the guide to cooking greasy chips and high chlorestorol diet books.
heh,heh,heh try not to smoke them all in 20 year's time ! Did anyone know that cigarrettes are good as an insecticide for pests ? If you put old cigars or cigarrettes and mix them up in the blender with water and mint, then spray it over your roses, the bugs die. So there is a good use for tobacco, as natural insecticide after all.
Thank you Dougie. I will cut down on the smoking by taking one cigarette from each box and using it in my garden!
Robert, Maria and dougie,
never heard of 'bumps' before .. I used to keep my birthday a secret at school also, but only so that I could take the day off and it not look suspicious .. year after year.
Well, one birthday over and another coming ..
It is friday afternoon here, and in case any of you (except Maria) don't know, it is Maria's birthday on Sunday 24th.
I am saying this now in case she slips away first, before we can say 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIA' .. on her little holiday to Spain. I believe a banquet lunch and some live opera are the order of the day.
So enjoy your trip Maria, we look forward to hearing about it on your return.
I think it will only be about 21 'bumps' that you will have to endure ..
Hi Victoria
I knew Maria was going away for her birthday but didn't know the precise date of her birthday. I've already wished her Happy Birthday in advance and I'll do it again on Sunday. I'm not sure if I can open a new thread - I think only the Blog owner can do that.
Maria will be hoping for at least 18 bumps or else she will be too young to vote!
Happy Birthday to Maria! Hope you are enjoying your trip and that you are taking some pics of Spain.
Hi Robert,
I think Maria just slipped away to Spain without any announcement here.
No doubt she will have some nice photos on her return.
It may still be Sunday there so ..
Happy Birthday Maria, hope your day was a good one.
Monday morning here, the news is full of Susan Boyle and the video footage, she does have a beautiful voice.
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