Provence Workshops - California Academy of Painters

Overview

The Workshop Experience
Staying in Provence in an hilltop village like Simiane la Rotonde or in an old estate like Roquepierre, surrounded by lavender fields is a totally romantic, unforgettable, once in a lifetime experience.

For the duration of your stay you will be entirely immersed in the lavender culture of Provence, dining in fine local restaurants, with sophisticated, yet, traditional county style cooking, using exclusively fresh local ingredients - and yes - true lavender is used in cooking! Your entire environment is blossoming in the traditional lavender culture, from the perfume that permeates the air all around you (this wonderful aroma is said to have healing properties) to the colors of the entire landscape, fields, skies, even the colors of shutters in old houses, and stores in the village. It is lavender all around.

You will very quickly realize that you are much more than a visitor. You will actually start to live there. It is our belief that it creates a much better learning experience to be rooted and grounded than to be lost and on the go!

We now have a home at the heart of our painting workshop territory. We have discovered new fabulous vistas, entire fields and small villages, away from the road, where the local painters have taken us for paint outs together. Be sure to visit our online tour of the region.

You will be able to create beautiful work in silence and peace, away from the tourists routes, which are not very busy in the first place. It also means that we really know the people with which we work, and that we are welcome as old friends, year after year. This makes for a much happier experience.

There are such a variety of opportunities to sketch and paint, it is impossible to describe it all. Those of you who are interested in people in action, it is Jim's favorite, as you can see from the gallery of last year's sketching. You can capture people to your heart's content, whether it is at the market, at the petanque game in the afternoon or the evening, or simply on the promenade in Sault, from which we can paint vistas of farms in blooming lavender fields in the valley and all sorts of funny people, playing petanque, watching, just enjoying the day....

We will share our time between the fields in bloom and the hilltop villages. When in the fields, those of you who want to do oil paintings will have a feast, as you can paint it all, from the lavender in your reach, all the way to the horizon, lavender fields, interrupted only by golden wheat fields and green forests in the distance.

When visiting the hilltop villages, we generally stop for a few hours to paint from outside the village. From there, you can paint in either oil or watercolor, provided that your equipment is relatively compact, as we might have to set up in small areas to get the best view of hilltop villages. In some places, oil is not as easy as we have to walk up to the village and the streets are very narrow. There are a variety of options, depending on the person and the circumstances.

Because the workshops are small, we do adapt to individual desires as much as possible, organizing the schedule so that your particular expectations can be fulfilled. It is all enchanting anyway! Knowing the place, the people and the opportunities better and better, year after year, allows us great flexibility.

We hope you can join us for this exceptional workshop. There is room for your spouse if you wish to come together. Some rooms are designed for couples, while others are made for double occupancy with individual beds. All rooms have a private bath (one exception ). We are looking forward to hear from you. Take a stroll in our image gallery, enjoying the fabulous colors of the country at sunset, the mystery of 12th century ruins, the magical glow of lavender all the way up to the sky, the dance of huge clouds in the afternoon above your head, the shy and funny sheep in a far country, or the colorful awnings, bolts of cloth and baskets of food amidst the local shoppers on market day. It is all there for you!

There is a CD available with much more images from previous lavender workshops.
If you wish to order one , please click here.

Mediums of choice
Whatever your choice of medium, we recommend that you take with you a handy watercolor set for quick sketches, as well as some pencil sketching material. Sometimes we are in town for the colorful local outdoor market. It is easy to sketch rapidly the scene in front of you, although some painters have set up and paint with oils.

The material you take with you can be adapted to your personal needs. We will work individually with you when you register to help you choose the best material for your purpose. You can find the generalities in the material lists for each medium. In France, you will not find a great deal of material available where we are going, with the exception of sketching paper.

These are small workshops, by any international workshop standard, so we can take care of you before and during the workshop. This includes the important part of material gathering and the practical side of things, weight and transportation. We want to keep these workshops in the spirit of a small group, family like, so that your experience is truly unique.

Materials list