The chateau named conac in Romanian was the property of Balcescu family from Valachia, the part of Romania south of the Carpathian Mountains. Nicolae Balcescu played an important role in the formation of modern Romania.
In this idyllic setting near an old wooden church moved here from another village, with all that luxuriant green forests surrounding us, we gathered at the initiative of Nicolae Mihai, researcher at the Romanian Academy and a very dedicated figurine painter, being hosted by Mr. Antonie Chelcea, director at the Nicolae Balcescu's Memorial.
Some of us have been accompanied by our families and despite our fears they had a great time in the vast yard, playing sports and benefiting by the very clean and healthy environment.
The hosts have been at their highest level, all the personnel doing their best for us to feel as good as possible. We also visited the museum that has many well preserved pieces of art and history, conserving a certain feeling from an old and mysterious period.
The theme of the meeting was to paint an Arab archer bust, beautifully rendered by Mario Numitone.
As you can see in the pictures, two of our fellows are sculptors and they had a great time too, regardless our most stupid requests.
A novelty by all means was a representative of the graceful gender, miss Ileana Sadean (https://www.facebook.com/ileana.sadean.3?fref=ts), a well acquainted miniaturist that is creating all kinds of subjects from A to Z, completing very well the diversity and complexity of this domain.
As a treat for guests, visitors and hosts, a small area was dedicated to the exhibit of some of the latest works of the participants. It was a surprise also for us.
By far the kids were the most excited for being able to paint plastic soldiers and model tanks generously offered by Cristian Florescu (http://www.ww2germans.com/)
There had been 3 demonstrations by Catalin Balta - "Making model trees", Bogdan Papuse - "rendering moss on rocks and trees" and myself - "painting a face with oils on an acrylic base".
The atmosphere was great, and the artists that were staying at the location worked till late in the night, with no one to tell them to stop.
In the end the official sponsor http://www.machete.ro/ presented us with useful gifts to keep up working and dreaming on new projects.
Back home I made some new pictures to my bust and now I'm waiting for a few free minutes to pick his lints, give him a matte laquer and enhance the last details.
