Tour guide report
From April, 22nd to April, 29th a group of 7 including the tour guide headed off for Madeira.
A private taxi brought some of us directly down to Nuremberg airport. Having arrived in Madeira, 2 rented cars waited for us. In a relaxed manner we drove to our hotel in Calheta and we were pleasantly surprised. The house is situated on a very quiet hill (about 300m high) from where we had a splendid view over the sea and the bordering mountains. First thing we did there was to relax over a good cup of coffee on the teracce of our hotel. Enjoying the wonderful view on the sea and the spectacular landscape, we commenced to dive mentally into our painting tour when starting to search for worthwhile motifs.
The next morning at around 10 o´clock it started to become exciting. Everybody unpacked his or her painting utensils.
Mr Ludwig brought along a suitcase full of painting and drawing equipment we all could use equally. The first paintings were motifs of flowers in acryl, aquarelle and pastel chalk.
Time went by quickly and after our lunch break and Siesta we payed visit to Calheta harbour and beach.
The very next day we finished our pictures. Our course guide always had a helping hand – if requested – and gave us the right advice for a successfull finish.
With the results becoming visible we became much calmer and were very pleased with our artistic advance.
On Friday we went to the capital Funchal for a day trip and there we could experience the atmosphere of the so-called „flower island“. A trip with the cable railway to the mountains of Funchal and our dinner at a restaurant near the sea in Ribeira Brava was the perfect ending of wonderful day. Impressed by the spell of Funchal we produced our first paintings of the island itself the following day. Scenes of the island were realized also with the help of postcards. Others even tried to directly depict motifs from the landscape itself.
On sunday a second trip was planned. The boss of the hotel organised a taxi bus for us. The extremely friendly driver showed us the most picturesque motifs around the island, which included a walk through the Lavedas – at around lunchtime we stopped at a sea-water pool where we also had lunch (personal tip) before we went back to the hotel.
On Monday at 10 o´clock we designed our last pictures bearing in mind with melancholy the forthcoming departure. The afternoon we spent at the beach of Calhera and made the day come slowly to an end. In the evening we had a final meeting discussing our oeuvre by an exhibition showing all the pictures and paintings of the course members.
With each tour - again and again - it is most impressive to look at the variety and quality works which are being created with one week only. Our guide – the painter Martin Ludwig – gave us some final advice for the future and did not save on praise and encouraged us to continue painting at home in the future.
On Tuesday morning after a rich breakfast and a last swimm at the pool, our taxis brought us to the airport….
The next painting tour guided by Mr Ludwig is not far.
A course member ( joined this journey already 4 times)
Raids
