Painting holidays
May 26th - June 2nd 2024
Location: Costa Brava, Spain
My watercolor painting holiday on the Costa Brava is an exciting opportunity to paint in some stunning locations and a wide variety of subjects.
The objectives of the watercolor workshop are to improve your watercolor painting techniques, while exploring the unique beauty of the location. Through demonstrations, individual instruction, and group critiques, participants will gain a better understanding of how to create atmosphere, depth, and interest in their artwork and develop their personal style.
You will have a chance to paint many different subjects: Beach, Landscape and Seascape and Street Scenes. Each day we will try and produce 2 completed paintings together.
Here are some of our objectives for the week:
Getting familiar with materials and the location:
– Introduction to watercolor painting plein air techniques and materials
– Painting a seascape view with emphasis on capturing the essence of the location’s atmosphere and lighting.
– How to paint small boats on the beach or in the water.
Exploring Colors:
– Painting a street view of the town, emphasizing the use of color and light to create depth and mood.
– Introducing Cars and People into your Street Scenes.
– Demonstrations on the use of colors to create contrast and harmony.Get some colors into those shadows!
Capturing the beauty of the surrounding nature:
– Painting a landscape view of the nearby botanical gardens, with emphasis on the use of texture, shape and tone to create depth and interest.
– Demonstrations on creating naturalistic foliage and trees, and the use of aerial perspective to convey distance.
Capturing the town’s architecture:
– Painting a view of the town’s traditional buildings, emphasizing the use of perspective and composition to create a sense of space and atmosphere.
– Demonstrations on painting the architectural details and using negative painting techniques to create contrast.
Experimenting with different techniques:
– Painting a view of the rocky coastline or harbor, with emphasis on using different watercolor techniques to create a variety of textures and effects.
– Demonstrations on using wet-on-wet, drybrush, and spatter techniques to create interesting effects.
Reviewing and developing personal style:
– Painting a view of the town or surrounding area of each participant’s choice, with emphasis on incorporating the techniques learned over the week and developing individual style.
– Final review and discussion of the artwork produced during the workshop.
For more information, pricing and availability, please email me.
Location: Costa Brava, Spain
My watercolor painting holiday on the Costa Brava is an exciting opportunity to paint in some stunning locations and a wide variety of subjects.
The objectives of the watercolor workshop are to improve your watercolor painting techniques, while exploring the unique beauty of the location. Through demonstrations, individual instruction, and group critiques, participants will gain a better understanding of how to create atmosphere, depth, and interest in their artwork and develop their personal style.
You will have a chance to paint many different subjects: Beach, Landscape and Seascape and Street Scenes. Each day we will try and produce 2 completed paintings together.
Here are some of our objectives for the week:
Getting familiar with materials and the location:
– Introduction to watercolor painting plein air techniques and materials
– Painting a seascape view with emphasis on capturing the essence of the location’s atmosphere and lighting.
– How to paint small boats on the beach or in the water.
Exploring Colors:
– Painting a street view of the town, emphasizing the use of color and light to create depth and mood.
– Introducing Cars and People into your Street Scenes.
– Demonstrations on the use of colors to create contrast and harmony.Get some colors into those shadows!
Capturing the beauty of the surrounding nature:
– Painting a landscape view of the nearby botanical gardens, with emphasis on the use of texture, shape and tone to create depth and interest.
– Demonstrations on creating naturalistic foliage and trees, and the use of aerial perspective to convey distance.
Capturing the town’s architecture:
– Painting a view of the town’s traditional buildings, emphasizing the use of perspective and composition to create a sense of space and atmosphere.
– Demonstrations on painting the architectural details and using negative painting techniques to create contrast.
Experimenting with different techniques:
– Painting a view of the rocky coastline or harbor, with emphasis on using different watercolor techniques to create a variety of textures and effects.
– Demonstrations on using wet-on-wet, drybrush, and spatter techniques to create interesting effects.
Reviewing and developing personal style:
– Painting a view of the town or surrounding area of each participant’s choice, with emphasis on incorporating the techniques learned over the week and developing individual style.
– Final review and discussion of the artwork produced during the workshop.
For more information, pricing and availability, please email me.

Sept 28th - October 5th 2024
Location: Tuscany
My regular week at the Watermill in Posara, Tuscany.
For centuries artists have drawn their inspiration from the Tuscan landscape and you couldn't find a better place than the watermill to enjoy your painting holiday and improve your skills.
The courses run from Saturday to Saturday. We usually spend Sunday painting in the Watermill gardens or beside the river, or in the light and airy Watermill studio, overlooking the gardens and mountains on one side and the river on the other. We take you on painting trips to an ancient castle and village, to market day in a nearby walled Medieval town, to a secluded cloistered convent and to a thousand-year old hilltop village with craggy mountain views........ And there’s a whole day (non-painting) excursion by train to the walled city of Lucca or to the fishing villages of the Cinque Terre.
So every day we'll paint outside as much as possible and I will try to do two demos during the day. During the demos I’ll welcome questions, such as ‘Why did you choose that scene?’ ‘What brush are you using there?’ ‘What colour combination did you just use?’ and so on.
After the demonstration, everyone can have a go at replicating that scene. I will be on hand to look over your shoulder and give some words of encouragement and try to give advice on what, in my opinion, does work and what doesn't. We can also have all our work displayed together and go through a brief critique and compare our experiences.
If we're in the studio, no problem. There will be opportunity create some watercolour landscapes from some reference photos and we can do exercises on figure work, and getting things like cars or boats into the landscape.
We all want to take away many things from our time on this holiday and then the key is to IMPLEMENT at least one thing you have learnt.
For more information, pricing and availability, please email me.
Location: Tuscany
My regular week at the Watermill in Posara, Tuscany.
For centuries artists have drawn their inspiration from the Tuscan landscape and you couldn't find a better place than the watermill to enjoy your painting holiday and improve your skills.
The courses run from Saturday to Saturday. We usually spend Sunday painting in the Watermill gardens or beside the river, or in the light and airy Watermill studio, overlooking the gardens and mountains on one side and the river on the other. We take you on painting trips to an ancient castle and village, to market day in a nearby walled Medieval town, to a secluded cloistered convent and to a thousand-year old hilltop village with craggy mountain views........ And there’s a whole day (non-painting) excursion by train to the walled city of Lucca or to the fishing villages of the Cinque Terre.
So every day we'll paint outside as much as possible and I will try to do two demos during the day. During the demos I’ll welcome questions, such as ‘Why did you choose that scene?’ ‘What brush are you using there?’ ‘What colour combination did you just use?’ and so on.
After the demonstration, everyone can have a go at replicating that scene. I will be on hand to look over your shoulder and give some words of encouragement and try to give advice on what, in my opinion, does work and what doesn't. We can also have all our work displayed together and go through a brief critique and compare our experiences.
If we're in the studio, no problem. There will be opportunity create some watercolour landscapes from some reference photos and we can do exercises on figure work, and getting things like cars or boats into the landscape.
We all want to take away many things from our time on this holiday and then the key is to IMPLEMENT at least one thing you have learnt.
For more information, pricing and availability, please email me.