Chateaux Painting Holidays NEWSLETTER 2012 ► Dates 2013
Posted on November 1, 2012
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Bonjour à tous, chers amis peintres 🙂2012 was another sunny year with soft fragrances and gentle colours.
The two weeks at Beduer were sunny but not too hot …. except for one only morning of light rain, where I got to demonstrate acrylics & grey mid-tones…lol 😉 Every year I try to present a new subject so as not to be repetitious. This year in watercolour it was brush & colour; in opaque mediums, it was colourist vs tonalist lay-ins. This follows on from the often expressed desire ‘to be able to paint looser & freer.’ You might have heard me express my agreement with Ruskin that ‘slow diligence’ is the beginner’s best friend.
Thing is … that painting is a practice, not so much a theory. It’s something you do, maybe the understanding comes slowly afterwards…I hope you know that feeling the morning after a day of painting … that goes that pulls you look at what you painted the day before. It’s something like curiousity. Did I do that? Then the evaluation…that’s not so bad after all, phew!! Maybe a little bit of satisfaction…If not, well, ahhemm… try again.
The main news of 2012 must surely Eric, our new chef. Eric has run his own restaurant, chefed for the poshest golf in the Dordogne as well as worked in Paris & Chelsea, London. He knows the palette of the South West to perfection. Just fabulous to work with such a professional, such a good humoured & talented chef. We sure ate well! He laugh & joked, cooked up delicious meals & just dealt with everything like the real pro that he is. He understands hospitality. By the end of the week, there was a a tear or two, when happy-holiday-makers had to finally leave his wonderful, good humoured table.
A variant of ratouille created by Eric; Rosé d’Aquitaine
An example of a menu maybe:
Appertif – Monbazillac
Fois Gras mi-cuit avec son compote d’èchalotes
Magret de Canard grillé avec son sauce au poivre
Pommes de terre Sarladaise et Salade Verte
Deux verres de Bergerac A.O.C.
Fromage -Chèvre Cabécou et Morbier
Verrine des Fraise Frais
Café ou Tisaine
‘I had a great time and learnt loads, which is pretty amazing since I was eating and drinking so much and socialising. It was just such a great holiday.’ – Karen, Australia, 2012
Here are the dates 2013 for Beduer :
At the Chateau de Beduer, Near Figeac, Lot, South-West France.
Weds 5 June – Weds 12 June 2013
Fri 21 – Fri 28 June 2013
Fri 13 August – Fri 20 September 3013
Two weeks in June & one week in September every year at Le Château de Béduer.
Please note that those wishing to come for two weeks back to back might wish to think about doing the first week at our new venue, Saint Avit Séniuer
Bookings for Beduer
We are now open for bookings. Please ask for a booking form. Bookings are already coming in so don’t leave it too late.
PRIX DE FIDELITÉ : 50 EUROS REDUCTION FOR RETURNING STUDENTS
PRICES FOR BEDUER 2013 : 950 euros per painter – 50 euros prix de fidelité = 900 euros, making us one of the cheapest painting holidays in france, especially as we are 8 days, 7 nights. .
GROUP BOOKINGS : why not bring all your art group?! For four or more painters, a 50 euro reduction per painter. For a group of six, seventh painter at half price
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WOW!! This is our new venue :
The Presbytère de St. Avit Séniuer, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Dordogne, South West France.
Tuesday 28 May – Tuesday 4 June 2013
It is a World-Heritage UNESCO listed site, a fortified abbey dating from the eleventh century.
Truly amazing feeling to the place.
A major stop on the pilgrim’s way St.Jacques de Compostella. Medieval frescoes.
We have the exclusive use of the seventeenth century presbytery as our studio, inside the beautiful abbey grounds.
Set in a charming, picturesque,yellow sandstone, sleepy, authentic Périgordien village.
Vegetable gardens, terraced gardens made by the monks.
Two minutes amble to deep unspoilt & very paintable countryside.
Lots to paint!
Pretty views, woods, cliffs, working farms with old stone buildings.
Great painting opportunity. The best of the Dordogne, really.
Accommodation in BRITAVIT , a comfortable, charming chambre d’hotes with discreet & attentive hosts.
Very easy to get to – up to nine flights a week to Bergerac airport from the UK, Amsterdam, Paris. Pick-up & drop-off to airport (30 minutes) included in the price. 1.5 hours by train from Bordeaux.
Here is the link to the web-pages which will give all the info you need.
Painting Holidays at Saint Avit Sénieur
Dates for the Presbytère de St. Avit Séniuer, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Dordogne, South West France.
Tuesday 28 May – Tuesday 4 June 2013
Bookings for Saint Avit
PRIX DE FIDELITÉ : 50 EUROS REDUCTION FOR RETURNING STUDENTS
PRICES FOR SAINT AVIT : This holiday is organised slightly differently than Beduer, in that we don’t offer an all-inclusive price. You pay the chambres d’hotes directly for the b&b and for four evening meals. For the other meals you pay directly the restaurants. This works out cheaper for you. The total price is somewhere around 850 euros, which is the cheapest on the market.
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This is where I now post sketches, watercolours & paintings as well as the odd arty thought or laugh… come & hang out with ex-painting holiday students 🙂
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Hope to see you again 🙂
Wishing you all well
Lots of good discoveries & happiness with your painting 🙂
Adam
BA hons – fine art (Newcastle University); Further Education & Adults Teaching Cert (Avon); Foundation Diploma Art Therapy (Bath City College).
ADAM COPE
Business License – Siret 41962662700030. Estabilshed 1997.
‘Les Peyrats’
St Dizier
47330 Cavarc
FRANCE
TEL : +(00 33) 5 53 01 22 91
blogging in bergerac, dordogne
Posted on May 16, 2012
Chateaux Painting Holidays Newsletter 2011
Posted on November 9, 2011

NEWS OF CHATEAUX PAINTING HOLIDAYS IN 2011
On a painting holiday, you should expect to have:
– a good holiday (good food, good wine, good company, good accommodation, good welcome, good price).
– a good venue (inspiring, beautiful, calm, unique, interesting, somewhere more than a converted barn where you have to clamber in & out of mini-buses to go painting).
– good painting (your practical needs are seen to see ie equipment, atelier, materials, subject matter, clearly defined learning goals to each learning exercise & more subtly, a tutor who doesn’t get in the way of your painting 😉
– good learning (bring your open ‘beginner’s mind’ as well as choose a good art tutor!)
As you all know, I only give gold stars for learning & not for ‘good paintings’. Here’s two 2011 gold stars from amongst many. Please don’t feel disappointed if I don’t mention you here. I can’t mention everybody, except to say that there were no memorial failures & that everyone worked surprising hard (this surprise me every year). Everybody got a gold star. Remember yours because is not flippant.
One gold star goes to this absolute beginner for truly embracing the ‘foliage challenge’. Remember for an absolute beginner, even holding a brush in one’s hand feels strange. We all have felt & will continue to feel the fear & hesitancy which is characteristic of the untrained hand.
“This was our first painting holiday and we did not know how it would turn out. The group were wonderful and there was a very pleasant chemistry among all the participants. The number of persons who had attended previous years and were there for their third or fourth time speaks for itself. Adam, I would also like to thank you for the keen interest you took in our tuition. The Chateau and grounds are wonderful and thank you Sue for looking after us.”
And another gold star to this beginner to alla-prima (one session only) landscape painting in oil. This was a hard won battle, risking tears & moving into the humbling ‘not-knowing’ at the heart of every learning leap. It’s colorist, done on the spot but without giving up her notion of what a good painting should look like. We all have ideas of how we would like to paint & this leads us to the delicate & complex problem that copying what you see isn’t making art.”Art is not what you see but what you make others see” – Degas
Both paintings have a breath of sunlight & joy, which I enjoy very much.
PRACTICE NOTES
To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make the soul grow. So do it. ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worthwhile, and it will do you a world of good. ~ Cennini, circa 1400 ad.
Part of the answer to this wide-spread problem is enjoyment. I find once I get started again, the enjoyment soon comes. A good practice should be enjoyable, despite of the challenges. I will tell you a secret : the best way to paint is to enjoy it. Make it something you look forward to. You are treating yourself to especial time of creativity & enquiry. Enjoy touching your materials, the feel of paint spreading out into water, the slide of a graphite pencil over the fibres of the page.
Personally I find that painting ‘en plein-air’ feeds my soul. There is nothing better than being out there. I enjoy these pleasurable sensations, such as light, colour, being outside, looking at a beautiful corner of the world…
Sometimes however one’s practice might be in a slump or a down-turn. Maybe then is the time for an inspirational boost! Input from an other source. A short but intense period of practice. Maybe a change of scene? A change of habit? Try something new? Go to another landscape? Or return to that special place where you were once happy? Expose yourself to another teacher? Or go back to a teacher with whom one had good contact? Deepen the learning which was touched on? Consolidate those discoveries which were not fully integrated into one’s natural way of painting?
Sometimes… in a beautiful place, in the sunshine, on holiday, with no distractions, no worries, with good company & good teaching, it all just seems to flow. Then the practice becomes easy. It is our aim to provide this for you at Beduer.
NEWS OF CHATEAU DE BEDUER
2011 was an exceptionally sunny year. Month after month of blue skies. Incredible amount of sun soaked sunlight… one the many things that makes the South West of France a painter’s paradise.
One of my personal favourite times of the day at Beduer are the early mornings, between 7,30 and 9,30, when the light casts long,low shadows and enters the lime grove with a gold-green splendour. The hills shimmering in the early morning mists … “blue horse of morning”…. “Tous les matins du monde” … with freshness of the new day, hope for what the day will bring.
NEWS OF ADAM’S PAINTING PRACTICE
‘Lime Orchard at Beduer, Early Morning’
watercolour 28 x 38 cm (approx 15 x 11 inches)
Plein-air, colour, light, deep nature, local distinctiveness, south west france in oils & watercolor. A love of gesture drawing, especially of children, musicians & market places…. Read on Adam’s blog or more frequenting posting on Face Book (Adam Cope).
I still aspire to learning more about painting…. Tip: Letting go of being an expert enables you to keep learning. Also, be ready to learn from others. I recently met one of the world’s greatest watercolorists,Jean-Louis Morelle, at an opening night of his wonderful paintings. In the space of ten minutes of listening to him, & looking at his paintings, I learnt more than several years of looking at art on the internet…
I exhibited during July in the somewhat surreal, strange but authentic medieval town of Marcilhac-sur-Célé. I’m a member of an association of artists who have a gallery in the abbey, run by the incredible, somewhat unbelievable Peter Reusellemann. Peter loves print-making & has a print-making studio. In 1996, I was invited to be an artist in residence involving stone lithography. The exchange of ideas, mutual support & feedback was great. The conversations good; the inspiration great. Friendship & comrade are a precious & enriching part of being an artist. Every artist needs these, even professionals. Ii’s good to work alone in a solitary manner but it’s also good to receive feedback & clarification from others. To practice together. A good painting workshops should provide you with this.
– Gillian Golding , a print-maker, regular of the UK Royal Academy’s summer show, truly unique humorist and cats & dogs lover.
– Beatrice Mollaret , a photographer whose very beautiful images of South West France are used by National Geographic, etc.
I also exhibited in Sarlat, Bergerac and yet another UNESCO site, the abbey of St Avit de Séniuer, where we run an artist-association Gallery.
NEWS OF SUE
Sue says bonjour to everyone. She will be there for 2012. She overcame her reticence to be photographed & mentioned on the web site About us
Without Sue, it would be impossible… A painting holiday requires attention to detail as well as a smile & a laugh.
A painting holiday which glides effortlessly forward like a swan always means that somebody is doing masses of work out of sight to help things run smoothly! – Katherine Tyrrell.
NEWS OF MARIE-LINE, VALENTIN & ELEANOR
NEW : POSSIBILITY OF RENTING ALYKDS, OIL PAINTS & ACRYLICS AT COST PRICE.
TROUBLE-FREE TRAVEL FOR ALKYDS, OIL PAINTS & ACRYLICS : We offer the possibility of renting at cost-price a complete set of student quality paints : alkyds or oils or acrylics. So you can simply fly with no luggage worries! Just bring your own brushes & canvas boards or canvas paper. We supply everything else. We teach you to paint in a way so that your paintings are dry enough easily travel home with you. We pack them professionally for you.
I thought this would be a good idea, as most painting holidays don’t do much to provide for the alkyds, acrylics & oils…. the opaque mediums which are heavy to travel with (slipped discs) & are not easy to bring onto an airplane (see my materials list for helpful info on this).
PRIX DE FIDELITÉ : 50 EUROS REDUCTION FOR RETURNING STUDENTS
PRICEs FOR 2012 : 900 euros per painter – 50 euros prix de fidelity = 850 euros, making us one of the cheapest painting holidays in france, especially as we are 8 days, 7 nights and not the usual 7 days, 6 nights. We haven’t put our prices up since 2009.
NEW : GROUP BOOKINGS , why not bring all your art group?!
For four or more painters, a 50 euro reduction per painter.
For a group of six, seventh painter at half price.
NEW : FLIGHTS FROM LONDON CITY AIRPORT TO BRIVE DORDOGNE VALLEY
This airport is about one hour from Beduer. We pick up & drop off on the fridays at 60 euros per per journey, which is divisible amo,gst the number of passengers.
The times of the friday flights friendly with our course start time of sat 16 hr.
FLIGHTS FROM DUBLIN & STANSTED TO RODEZ
We pick up & drop off on the friday flights.
MANY INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS TO TOULOUSE
TVG RIDE FROM PARIS
AN IDEA FOR 2013
I’ve been toying with the idea of organizing a ‘winter-sun’ painting holiday, some time around march at the end of winter, somewhere sunny like Morocco. I’ve been recommended a old Rihiad near the desert with great painting possibilities… ruins, red sand, oasis, swimming pools… Please help me by indicating whether you might be interested int this as an idea, whether I should go ahead & organize it? I would appreciate any feedback, even negative . Thanks 🙂
Wishing you a happy, healthy and creative 2012 from all of us at Chateaux Painting Holidays
Paint well.
Best Wishes from Adam, Marie-Line & Sue
Exhibtions in Sarlat & St.Avit – dordogne
Posted on September 6, 2011
* 25 August – 24 September. Galerie de la Presbytere, ST.AVIT DE SENIEUR
* 12 September – 26 September. Galerie André Malraux, SARLAT
Exhibition in Bergerac – oil painting of a forest – Biron, Dordogne
Posted on August 15, 2011
© Adam Cope
Exhibition of paintings by Adam Cope
La Maison des Vins de Bergerac, (CiVRB) la Cloitre des Recollets, quai salvetat, Bergerac
17 – 24 August
Over sixty watercolours & oils on show in this beautiful space by the river 🙂 I’ll be there every day so pop by, if you can.
Dates Exhibitions Summer 2011
Posted on May 30, 2011
Dates Exhibitions Summer 2011
* 4 July – 31 July. solo – Galerie Ap’Art, Marcilhac sur Cele, LOT
vernissage – lundi soir 4 Juilliet
* 17 – 24 August . solo – La Maison des Vins de BERGERAC
* 25 August – 24 September. ASSA group show – Galerie de la Presbytere, ST.AVIT DE SENIEUR
vernissage – dimanche apres-midi 28 Aout
* 12 September – 26 September. Solo – Galerie Andre Malraux, SARLAT
Recent paintings 2010 webpage
Posted on April 4, 2011
School Report 2011, Chateaux Painting Holidays, SW France
Posted on February 1, 2011
I hope you are well & happy 🙂
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calm & creative
NEWS OF THE PAINTING WEEKS AT CHATEAU DE BEDUER
Everybody was good company. There was a memorable group booking from Sao Paolo, (at the time of the world football cup), which was full of laughter & talent. These painting holidays are good places to meet people & spend an enjoyable time together 🙂
http://fcembranelli.blogspot.com/2010/07/about-painting-in-franceetc-sobre.html
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make the soul grow. So do it. ” – Kurt Vonnegut
News of Adam’s Painting Practice
“A perfect beauty of a sunflower! a perfect excellent lovely sunflower existence! a sweet natural eye to the new hip moon, woke up alive and excited grasping in the sunset shadow sunrise golden monthly breeze! ” – exerpt from ‘Sunflower Sutra’ by Allen Ginsberg

“Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worthwhile, and it will do you a world of good.” ~ Cennini, circa 1400 ad.
I feel this long, fallow period will give birth to something new…something more than the above advice on Practice 😉 …. Maybe a new direction? Work has already started in 2011.
Exhibitions in ‘La Récollets’, Bergerac in August 2011 at St. Avit de Senieur in September 2011 & hopefully at Sarlat and St.Emillion (to be be confirmed).
News of Sue
Ah hem????, said the gruffalo
http:www.artists-atelier/artholidays/us.htm” A painting holiday which glides effortlessly forward like a swan always means that somebody is doing masses of work out of sight to help things run smoothly!” – Katherine Tyrrell
News of Adam, Marie-Line, Valentin & Eleanor
New : Flights from London City Airport to Soulliac/Brive Dordgne Valley Airport
This airport us about one hour from Beduer. We pick up & drop off at 115 euros per journey, which becomes easy when shared with others. The times of the saturday flight seem to be friendly with our course start time of sat 16 hr.
http://www.aeroport-brive-vallee-dordogne.com/
New: we have simplified banking. You can now pay my fees directly via IBAN (free for Europeans) or via PayPal for non-Europeans. Chateau de Beduer has now simplified things by one simple click of a PayPal button.
New : we now offer a reduction of 50 € per painter for groups of four or more painters.
‘PRIX DE FIDELITE’ – There is the usual reduction for returning students of fifty euros per person. We’ve not put our prices up either.
COURSE DATES 2011
Saturday 18 June to Saturday 25 June
Saturday 25 June to Saturday 2 July
Saturday 3 September to Saturday 10 September
Wishing you a very happy, creative 2011.
Paint well.
Best Wishes from Adam, Marie-Line & Sue
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Post-script …..
‘Piere de Ronsard’ Roses at Beduer
An Erotic Poem written at Beduer by Paul Valéry, whilst tossing about sleeplessly in the four poster bed in La Chambre ‘Paul Valéry’ & thinking of Jean Voiler, the then current Lady of the Chateau.
À LA ROSE PROFONDE
Sombre et profonde rose d’ombre odorante,
Ô rose de plaisir, dont le plaisir est pleur,
Rose humide d’espoir d’une caresse errante sur ses bords de calice où la chair se fait fleur,
D’une eau délicieuse, ô molle rose, enivre Jusqu’a l’ excés divin du bonheur animal.
Un coeur fuyant l’affreuse aventure de vivre qui boit ce poison de son étrange mal…
Puisse fondre sur toi la lèvre favorite Dont l’oeuvre fut tendre et sincère irrite
Plus, toujours plus en toi, toujours plus de douceur;
Tandis que la beauté qui te porte palpite Et palpitante inspire une tendresse soeur
Que son soupir appelle et qui se précipite… P.V. Corona & Coronilla.
Painting Holidays, roof
Posted on July 13, 2010
New roof on house which now means new electrics, new walls & ceilings then a spot of decorating.
I greatly enjoyed teaching this june’s weeks at Chateaux Painting Holidays.
Lots of painting, inspiration, great students & great fun!
Exhibition – St.Emilion, The Little Gallery
Posted on March 11, 2010