International Ex Tempore Piran 2007

This summer I was invited to participate in an art competition in Slovenia called Ex Tempore Piran.

This event has taken place annually, in early September, since 1966 and this year there were over 400 entrants, from throughout Europe and the judges, all well-known in art circles, were from Austria, Croatia, Italy and Slovenia.

Ex Tempore is THE major art competition in Slovenia and the newspapers and TV chains covered the prize giving and opening night celebrations held under the night sky on Tartini Square in Piran.

Piran is a coastal town, which lies on the 46 km stretch of Slovenian coastline sandwiched between Italy and Croatia. From here, Venice can just be seen on a clear day, the Italian Alps are clearly visible and the Croatian border is a 5 minute drive away. This is me and international artist Tjasa Iris (left in photo) with Piran in the background on the day we submitted our paintings. The scene I chose to paint for the competition included the beautiful blue expanse of the bay and the characteristic Black Pine Trees that line the sea front.

Co-inciding with Ex Tempore, Tjasa hosts an art 'happening" called Artist’s Colony Branik-Rihemberk at her beautiful old home, Villa Flora, in a small Slovenian village called Branik, which nestles at the foot of brooding Castle Rihemberk and in amongst the wine farms. She’s a generous host and a great guide, full of ideas on what to see in the area and a mine of information. She also does B&B’s at Villa Flora for painters and non-painters and painting workshops http://www.tjasairis.com/ It’s a lovely drive on excellent roads from Branik to Piran, through countryside still untouched by tourism (for the moment) and well worth seeing.

To get to Slovenia, I took the overnight train from Nice to Venice (Mestre) and then connected with a train to Monfalcone in Slovenia, where Tjasa picked me up by car. On the way back I took the morning train from Novo Gorica to Venice (St Lucia), checked my bags into paid storage and spent a fabulous day at the Venice Biennale (Arsenale only, as the Gardens are closed on Mondays) and even had time to treat myself to a spaghetti vongole and panna cotta at my favourite restaurant, the Quattro Feri at piazza St Barnabas, before taking the overnight train home again!