I hope you are not surprised to get this newsletter! Maybe it will give something to smile about once or twice a year. It contains a few tips to help your own personal painting practice as well as news of us. You email will never be shared with a third party so it’s spam-free.

NEWS OF CHATEAUX PAINTING HOLIDAYS IN 2011

There was a good spread of different types of painters, from all over the world, a charming mix of people, who got on well & enjoyed holidaying together. A great bunch of returning painters from Ireland made us all laugh & smile with their grace & wit 🙂

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.

– 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