May Newsletter
News, Exhibitions and Events...
🌿 May
May arrives with a sense of expectancy, as though summer is just out of sight but already warming the air. In Brittany it’s also the month of fériers, those scattered bank holidays that break the weeks into small, irregular pieces. Noise is frowned upon on these days—certainly after noon—so any work involving machinery must pause, adding to the stop‑and‑start feeling of the season.
With the return of sunshine, life spills outdoors. Lawns are cut, gardens tended, tables set for long lunches and easy evenings. We’ve had a run of dry days in the 20s, yet everyone remains mindful of the Ice Saints, the traditional mid‑May cold snap tied to the feast days of St. Mamertus, St. Pancras, and St. Servatius. Gardeners keep their tender crops tucked under cover until May 13 passes, just in case.
And then there are the fériers themselves—falling wherever they please in the week, often to the confusion of anyone newly arrived in France.
🌿Summer Term Class availability
🌿April in Review - what we’ve been creating.
🌿May Project.
🌿Upcoming Expos & Creative Gatherings.
🌿Opportunities
🌿Summer Term Class availability
I have some spaces for private sessions (Wednesday afternoons) - these are one off sessions for individuals or small groups who can’t commit to a longer course. Book here.
🌿April in Review — What We’ve Been Creating
It’s been a month of birds, Spring landscapes, elephants, architecture and Spring flowers. In class we’ve looked at artists as diverse as Georgia O’Keeffe, David Shepherd and Salvador.
🌿 May Project: Birds continued..
The bird project is going so well I have decided to continue it for a few more weeks. There are a few figurative tutorials in the pipeline and some different techniques upcoming.
Tutorial links - Song Thrush Woodpecker
🌿 Upcoming Expos & Creative Gatherings
Musee des Beaux Arts, Rennes, 3500 - lots of events, talks and guided tours …all year.
Hilma af Klint, The Temple Paintings (1906-1915) is at Grand Palais, Paris, 6 May–30 August
Musee des Beaux Arts, Vannes, UNDA / Traversée spectrale. Elsa Tomkowiak - contemporary artist…all year.
Salon d’Art. Association 11B annual exhibition, Guilliers. Until May 3rd
RWS Gallery, London. From April 10th Permanent revolving watercolour showcase.
Festival de la Bretagne - various events across the region May 14 - 24th.
Do let me know if you attend any of these — I’d love to hear your thoughts.
🌿 Opportunities
The British Art Prize 2026
Deadline: 7 September 2026
This prize offers exceptional national exposure and the chance for artists to sell their work to an audience of nearly a million art lovers and collectors. The prize fund includes significant cash awards, and shortlisted artists will exhibit at OXO Gallery, 21–25 October 2026.
🌿 It’s May! …
May means the growing season is truly upon us, and it’s not just the plants we carefully tend that are thriving. The weeds are doing spectacularly well too. As I spend hours tugging out invaders from beds and borders (and yes, I know—they’re only “weeds” because we’ve decided they’re in the wrong place), I can’t help but admire their sheer determination. A daisy pushing up through gravel, a dandelion punching straight through tarmac… they’re tiny acts of rebellion, quiet proof that life insists on happening even in the most unwelcoming conditions.
There’s a lesson tucked in there for us. We spend so much time trying to cultivate the “right” things—good habits, tidy routines, carefully planned projects—yet often it’s the wild, scrappy parts of ourselves that carry the most resilience. The part that keeps going when conditions aren’t ideal. The part that finds a crack of light and grows anyway. The part that doesn’t wait for permission.
So perhaps this season, alongside nurturing the plants we’ve chosen, we can also honour the spirit of the weeds: persistent, adaptable, unembarrassed by where they land. They don’t apologise for taking up space. They don’t wait for perfect soil. They simply get on with the business of living.
Be more weed—root where you can, grow where you must, and let your tenacity be its own kind of beauty.
A+
Elizabeth
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This is a lovely piece. I really like the idea of ‘be more weed’ as my guru Leonard Cohen said. ‘There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in’