Join internationally renowned Sujata Shah with like-minded passionate quilters. Whether you are a seasoned quilter or a beginner, this retreat promises a journey of self-expression and artistic exploration. Enjoy a weeklong immersive stitching experience unlike any other. Set amidst the serene Béarnais countryside, an unknown part of SW France, with its rolling hills, vineyards and majestic Atlantic Pyrénées, this retreat offers the perfect environment to unwind, connect with nature, and unleash your creativity. This perfect soothing setting combined with focused expert instruction will give you long lasting joy and motivate you to undertake more ambitious quilted art works.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Sujata Shah
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + $950 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Lucie Duclos for a fun week exploring the joys of mixed media. Immerse yourself in the amazing landscape of the majestic Pyrenees and create a series of postcards while exploring a variety of mixed media techniques. Discover new ways to create unique collage materials/fodder and experiment with painting, stamping, mark making, collaging, stencilling, printmaking, masking, drawing and stitching. Your postcard series will be like a travel journal, a way of observing and recording the colours, shapes, patterns and textures that shape our beautiful surroundings. The tone of this workshop is playful and experimental and is open to all levels, all you need is an open mind to explore and discover new horizons!
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Lucie Duclos
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + $550 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

A Watercolor Painting Workshop with Anita Winter. Known all over the world for its beauty, Provence is the artist's dream destination. Anita Winter will lead a group of watercolor painters on this painting adventure. During the days, we will explore Luberon, and its spectacular countryside of vineyards and orchards, fascinating "perched" hill-top villages, outstanding natural produce and the light of Van Gogh and Cezanne. You will soon see why artists of all calibers are drawn to this alluring area.
 
Location: Bonnieux, Provence, France
Instructor: Anita Winter
Cost: $3,890
Sponsor: Alpine Creative Tours
Website, email, 970-846-9000

Join Botanical Artist Ann Swan, RHS Gold Medalist and author of ‘Botanical Painting with Coloured Pencils’ for a week of Botanical drawing with a specific focus on creating contrast using coloured pencils. In this workshop Ann will show you how to interpret light and shade and to accurately capture contrasting tonal values to create a true sense of three-dimensional form and volume in your work. Ann will demonstrate ways of creating realistic highlights and sheen and help you choose convincing shade colours to create depth in shadows whilst maintaining vibrant colours so that your work will come to life on the page.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Ann Swan
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + £400 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Billy Showell for one week of botanical art using watercolour, concentrating on the beautiful differing greens that we can find around the garden or countryside. We will produce a beautiful Posey of leaves to show off the beauty of leaves, but also to make a pretty composition. By putting the leaves into a Posey, we can cover all aspects of composing a botanical painting. We will be looking at all the different shades of green that we can mix, how to depict the different veining and patterns on the leaves, and how to create light and shade. We will spend the first part of the course choosing and arranging the leaves, making sure that the Posey is beautifully arranged.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Billy Showell
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + £550 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join me for an amazing week of plein air painting in magnificent Provence, France! This is ‘Red poppy season’ and we’ll explore and paint the exciting spring colors of glorious Provence. I’m super excited to teach you painting in such an inspiring place! We’ll paint flower fields, countryside villages, waterways and hillside castle towns, quaint, flower-filled alleyways, medieval churches, fountains and ancient archways. We’ll paint our impressions, dine exquisitely, share gorgeous sights and creative companionship, all while learning and growing our craft. I will share my methods for creating successful paintings with loose brushwork and exciting color harmonies. I will demo in oil and watercolor, but am proficient and happy to help with acrylics and pastels as well.
 
Location: Fontaine de Vaucluse, France
Instructor: Maggie Hellmann
Cost: $3,940 before Nov 30th
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

A well-established contemporary plein air painter in Canada and the USA, Marc Grandbois offers his vision of personal expression through the beauty of nature. This class focuses on how to paint in plein air. Every student is led to better transpose his emotions related to place and time, into an image and to understand the subjective power of colors and gesture in painting. Marc will give a two-hour demonstration each morning en plein air in the Clos Mirabel park and surrounds. A large interior space will be available in case of bad weather. There will be a group critique on the last day for work to be shared by the group, creating both a supportive and exponential effect for future work.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Marc Grandbois
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 450€ tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

PleinAir This retreat will take you to the same places where Van Gogh and Cézanne painted many of their masterpieces. You will be inspired by the rich locations of Arles, Saint Remi, and Aix-en-Provence. Your Hosts Tali Farchi (NL) and Shay Avivi (IL) are accomplished painters and teachers, providing art instruction to enrich your creative process. They’ll share information about these master's lives and how they worked. The ArtisTTable has hosted hundreds of artists of all levels and backgrounds. During this retreat, we will stay in the center of Arles giving easy access to this historic city. This all-inclusive art retreat boasts delicious meals, exclusive day trips, and lots of art-making. It will be a trip you won't forget.
 
Location: Arles Provence, France
Instructor: Tali Farchi, Shay Avivi
Cost: €3,200 (early bird €2990)
Sponsor: Tali Farchi Artist Table
Website, email, +31 6 24903316

Chloe and Angela are known for their collaborative teaching, which brings together drawing and textile practice in innovative and inspiring ways. This is their second year at Atelier Clos Mirabel and this atelier is inspired by Matisse’s practice of ‘Drawing with Scissors’. It’s a week richly packed with their shared skills and knowledge in which you are encouraged to respond intuitively to the gardens and landscape of Atelier Clos Mirabel in colour, on paper and in textiles. Join Chloe & Angela, along with like-minded passionate makers, at this perfect soothing setting looking out towards the Atlantic Pyrenean mountain range.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Chloe Briggs & Angela Maddock
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + £450 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join me for one week of sketching with watercolor in beautiful Provence! Drawing while traveling is the best way to experience and remember a new place. Traveling is also a perfect opportunity to learn or hone your drawing skills. When we see new sights everything strikes us as unusual, memorable and inspiring. We have a natural desire to admire new vistas, taste new flavors, inhale unusual aromas and record these sensations through taking photos, but also through drawing and writing. For me, drawing while traveling is instinctual, and I am eager to share my passion to fully immerse yourself in a new place through the practice of travel sketching.
 
Location: Fontaine de Vaucluse, France
Instructor: Rita Sabler
Cost: $3,940 before Nov 30th
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

The wonderful views and landscapes of the French Alps seem to be just made for watercolor. All the incredible villages, lakes and mountains are just begging to be caught on the tip of your brush. Moving from place to place, we will find the best locations to create vibrant and sunny watercolors. Every day will be a discovery for you—and a new opportunity for painting in watercolor. In addition to traditional watercolor techniques, I will introduce you to my personal methods and secrets. Join us for relaxation and enjoyment of the French Alps with a very rich and informative workshop in the open air.
 
Location: Haute-Savoie, France
Instructor: Shari Blaukopf
Cost: $3,840 before Nov 30th
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

During this week of Botanical Sketching and Painting in the French Pyrénées with Lara Call Gastinger we will be observing, drawing and painting the local flora of Atelier Clos Mirabel. We will go through the process of how to create a botanical painting, starting with sketching and learning the important characteristics of plants. We will seek botanical inspiration from the acreage of Atelier Clos Mirabel and with a trip to the blooming meadows of the Pyrénées. After the first day of sketching, we will focus on using watercolours to capture the colours and textures of the plants. In the end, we will work on composition and how to create a finished botanical painting. All levels are welcome.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Lara Call Gastinger
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 450€ tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join acclaimed watercolorist and instructor, Margie Samuels, for a magical week of painting in beautiful Provence! Each day will start with a short morning lesson, reviewing the watercolor skills that you will be using in that day’s landscape. These lessons will focus on the specific techniques that you’ll need to take your painting to the next level, including: Creating Stronger Compositions; Putting Depth in Your Paintings (with Perspective); Employing Thoughtful Color Mixing; Painting People into your Landscapes for Interest and Movement. This workshop caters to all skill levels, focusing on foundational techniques. Whether you are a beginner or experienced, my goal is to equip you with the skills for creating vibrant paintings!
 
Location: Fontaine de Vaucluse, France
Instructor: Margie Samuels
Cost: $3,940
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

The wonderful views and landscapes of the French Alps seem to be just made for watercolor. All the incredible villages, lakes and mountains are just begging to be caught on the tip of your brush. Moving from place to place, we will find the best locations to create vibrant and sunny watercolors. Every day will be a discovery for you—and a new opportunity for painting in watercolor. In addition to traditional watercolor techniques, I will introduce you to my personal methods and secrets. Join us for relaxation and enjoyment of the French Alps with a very rich and informative workshop in the open air.
 
Location: Haute-Savoie, France
Instructor: Shari Blaukopf
Cost: $3,840 before Nov 30th
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

Join Catherine Watters for one week of drawing and painting the incredibly diverse flora of Clos Mirabel, using watercolours and/or coloured pencils to capture the colours and textures of the plants. Discover the fascinating world of Botanical Art, starting with a walk around the magnificent property to choose your subject. A variety of plants will be in bloom including Roses, Hydrangeas, Iris, Lupin, Lilies and numerous fruits and vegetables growing in the Orchard. Catherine will introduce her 10 stages to successfully illustrate a subject. You will carefully observe, measure and draw your subject focusing on form, light and texture. All levels of experience are welcome.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Catherine Watters
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 450€ tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join me for a week in Provence, where we will spend our week traveling and sketching and capturing all our experiences in our sketchbook. We will sometimes sketch quick vignettes on the go, and at other times, we will paint more immersive panoramas where we slow down to capture the essence of place in a single piece. Our travels will take us to beautiful riverside villages, lavender fields, cliffs of ochre and gardens where Van Gogh sketched. There will be markets and town squares to draw in and gourmet food to enjoy and capture in our sketches. All in all, you are promised a week filled with rich experiences and lots of art tips to up your travel-sketching game!
 
Location: Provence, France
Instructor: Suhita Shirodkar
Cost: $3,940 before Nov 30th
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

While learning the importance of oil painting techniques (values, edges, composition, etc.), the joy of actually painting France en plein air won’t get lost on Kathie! The enthusiasm for painting the mountains, lakes and chalets with you will be contagious! Kathie will walk through her process of narrowing down the choices of subject matter and then demo before it’s time for you to get your brushes wet too… and she will be right alongside cheering you on with personal instruction and encouragement! There is a reason why you want to paint. Kathie will work to help you tap that desire by throwing herself into the entire experience and beauty of the French Alps!
 
Location: Haute-Savoie, France
Instructor: Kathie Odom
Cost: $3,840 before Nov 30th
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

Join Kevin Scully at the beautiful Atelier Clos Mirabel estate in the French Pyrenees for a week of drawing and painting in the medium of your choice. During this painting holiday the emphasis will be on creating work that captures the sense of space and mood of our delightful surroundings, and producing paintings that are both loose in style, and enigmatic in atmosphere. Kevin Scully will be giving plenty of demonstrations as well as providing individual guidance in choosing the right materials, choosing a composition, tonal arrangement, and suitable colour schemes to help you produce some exciting paintings. Whether your favourite medium is oils, watercolours, acrylics, or pastels, the retreat is for painters of all levels of experience.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Kevin Scully
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + €400 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

A unique art workshop/art tour open to artists of all levels and media (oils, acrylics, watercolors, etc.). Seven days of plein-air painting, art history/theory lectures, and gastronomy in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence followed by four days visiting Barcelona’s top art sites and enjoying Catalan cuisine. The price of CAD 4700 per person (around US$ 3450) includes instruction, 11-night double accommodation, 11 breakfasts, 6 healthy lunches, 6 gourmet dinners including wine, transportation from the Manosque train station to our lodge, transportation to all painting sites, TGV train ticket Avignon-Barcelona, transportation and entrance fees to all sites on schedule (Cézanne’s studio, La Sagrada Familia, Picasso Museum, Miró Museum, etc.). Limited single rooms for a supplement of CAD 875 (around US$ 650).
 
Location: Alpes-de-Haute-Provence & Barcelona, France
Instructor: Prof. Yves M. Larocque
Cost: US$3450
Sponsor: Walk the Arts
Website, email, 800-611-4789

This class will encourage you to paint what inspires you. Focusing on elements of the environment at hand – landscape, architecture, food, culture, colour – we will create not just finished paintings but a library of source information for future development. This class is designed to help you get the most out of painting while traveling. Certain things peak each painter’s interest: Mountains in the distance, a garden, or a bowl of fruit. Students will choose their subject matter and Kat will work with each person individually to help them get the most out of their painting time. Group discussions and exercises will focus on finding dynamic compositions that best describe your unique experience of a particular location.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Kat O’Connor
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + $575 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Mary Dillon at Atelier Clos Mirabel for a week-long botanical art workshop in the French Pyrenees ~ South West France. Enjoy wonderful surroundings, delightful accommodation and delicious meals. Join me in early July, 2025, as I return to Clos Mirabel to paint Summer flowers. Wild and garden flowers will be at their best, filling the air with delicious scents and delighting our eyes with an array of colour. Everything about being in Clos Mirabel is special. From the warmth of your welcome by the family and team at Clos Mirabel to your first view of the Pyrenees, your beautifully appointed accommodation and the most delicious variety of locally sourced foods, you know that this will be a week for you!
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Mary Dillon
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 600 Euros tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join international artist and art educator Wendy Artin at Atelier Clos Mirabel in South West France for a week-long painting workshop. Enjoy painting instruction exploring the finer details of nature through wet washes and colour, light and form. All levels are welcome from complete beginners to professionals. We will spend 5 mornings painting the live model for 2 hours, with poses ranging from 30 seconds to 20 minutes. After personally picking a still life subject from the gardens of Atelier Clos Mirabel, we will paint preparatory sketches and work on longer paintings, experimenting with wet on wet, edge control, composition, shadows, and colour. There will be one free day mid-week for visiting the surrounding area or painting on one’s own.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Wendy Artin
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + tuition fee & model fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Experience the beauty of South West France through the lens of Urban Sketching! Immerse yourself in the playful world of mixed media landscapes guided by Sketchbook artist Jenny Adam. This dynamic workshop with Jenny Adam offers a harmonious blend of techniques, allowing you to simplify nature’s complexity while infusing your artwork with texture, color, and emotion. We will work on location, discovering the landscapes and villages, but also make time for exploring art in the comfort of the atelier. Course Highlights include: Playful Drawing Techniques, Understanding Media Properties, and Exploratory Exercises.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Jenny Adam
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 320€ tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Soyoung Sin is a leading Korean botanical artist, renowned for her delicate and realistic expression. Join her at Atelier Clos Mirabel for a week-long botanical art workshop in the French Pyrenees. Enjoy wonderful surroundings, delightful accommodation and delicious meals. All over the world, an increasing interest in environmental consciousness has inspired people to rediscover the beauty of nature in their daily lives. The practice of botanical art can give access to a certain state of inner peace and help in reconnecting to the essence of nature. Soyoung Sin has received medals from the Royal Horticultural Society of England and the Bloom Botanical Art Exhibition in Ireland. She has been teaching botanical art specialist courses at Gachon University and Yonsei University for 9 years.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Soyoung Sin
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 500€ tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Discover the Art of Paper Folding and 3D Construction with International Paper Artist Kate Colin. This course will consist of structured tuition combined with allocated time for guided exploration and development of personal projects which could be lighting, sculpture or functional pieces. This course is suitable for anyone interested in three-dimensional geometric form and working with paper as a base material. Suitable for all levels, students will be introduced to the basic principles of paper folding and learn all the necessary skills and techniques required to create a range of three-dimensional structures. There will also be a brief presentation about the history of paper folding and a review of some of its numerous contemporary applications.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Kate Colin
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + £450 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join me for an unforgettable painting holiday in Giverny, a strikingly beautiful part of France famous for its stunning scenery and captivating light. We’ll have plenty of time to capture once-in-a-lifetime experiences on the pages of our watercolor journals. You’ll learn how to add style and interest to your sketchbook pages through the use of unique page layouts and borders, and we’ll cover several fun new lettering styles. In addition, I’ll offer daily demonstrations of techniques for painting the subject matter you’ll encounter each day. And you’ll be painting right along with me, since we learn more by doing than by simply observing. The workshop is suitable for all levels, but some experience with drawing and watercolor would be helpful.
 
Location: Giverny, France
Instructor: Leslie Fehling
Cost: $3,840 before Jan 31
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

Join Sherri Lynn Wood for a restorative week of abstract piecing at the beautiful Atelier Clos Mirabel in the French Pyrénées, designed to get you out of your head and into your hands and heart. Nurture a receptive approach to freestyle quilting where you become the conduit through which creativity and patterns flow and are expressed. Learn ruler-free piecing techniques and how to harness your rhythm of attention and emotional energy into shape, colour and pattern to tell the unfolding story of being you!
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Sherri Lynn Wood
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + $750 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Cindy Briggs and Theresa Goesling in the French Alps and have a creative life experience. You’ll enjoy inspiring locations such as mountains, lakes, chalets, meadows, daily painting demonstrations, personalized instruction, and encouraging support from Cindy and Theresa. “We show you how to simplify and design your subject, draw confidently, jazz up your colors, paint with serendipity and experiment with new techniques. Create colorful paintings en Plein Air with an emphasis on celebrating your own unique point of view”.
 
Location: Haute-Savoie, France
Instructor: Cindy Briggs & Theresa Goesling
Cost: $3,840 before Jan 31
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

Do you struggle to apply watercolour or get overwhelmed sometimes when sketching? I will help solve your problems by showing you how to make fast improvements through sharing my most successful tips with watercolour sketching. You will receive plenty of individual tuition, demonstrations and examples to support you along the way. Return home armed with new skills in watercolour and sketching as you will have learnt how to sketch confidently, understand paint consistency and application and mix wonderful glowing colours to capture the magical scenes of Giverny. I will encourage you to sketch what makes your heart sing! The subjects covered will be truly inspirational – including French buildings, landscapes, local scenes and Monet’s garden!
 
Location: Giverny, France
Instructor: Judy Salleh
Cost: $3,840 before Jan 31
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

Throughout the week you will be introduced to the art of lino cut printmaking with Emily Robertson. Drawing inspiration from the luxuriant, natural environment of Clos Mirabel and its surrounds, Emily will guide you in the creation of your own lino cut prints. She will demonstrate the full lino printmaking process; drawing designs, carving & printing by hand. This course is suitable for any level of experience. You will be taught techniques that can easily be used for work you can create back home, as well as ways to improve the quality and even consistency of your prints.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Emily Robertson
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 450€ tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Experience the Provence region on an immersive artistic journey with Alicia Farris. Alicia adores sharing her passion for watercolor painting and inspires with her creative energy and loose and lively painting style. She feels artists share a special sense for both seeing and feeling their subjects. She helps inspire her students to use color and light to paint a story from their hearts, not merely from what their eyes see. You’ll have the opportunity to watercolor paint, sketch and photograph your way through this spectacular region of Provence. Whether it’s the beautiful gardens, the lovely vistas, colorful markets or the quaint villages that inspire you, Alicia will guide you through the creative process.
 
Location: Luberon, France
Instructor: Alicia Farris
Cost: $3,940 before Jan 31
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

Study with Jarnie Godwin at Atelier Clos Mirabel during a 5-day botanical art workshop in the French Pyrenees ~ South West France. Enjoy wonderful surroundings, delightful accommodation and delicious meals. Jarnie Godwin will guide you into the ethereal mysteries of the fading bloom. As blooms begin to fade you will learn how to capture these intimate, fragile and fleeting moments of decay. Using a range of watercolour techniques, Jarnie will show you how to create the unique acute textures and colour transitions of decay and fading colour. You will learn more about the unique form and detail of fading flowers, and will gain confidence in using and manipulating watercolour to convey an intimate moment in time.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Jarnie Godwin
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + £400 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Come join me for an amazing week of plein air painting in beautiful Provence, France! We will have gorgeous views to paint of cute medieval villages, colorful markets, rivers, olive trees, etc… It is also a place to enjoy gourmet cheese and wine, ratatouille and creme brûlée! You can choose to work with Oil &/or Gouache in this workshop. I will be doing daily demos and assisting you with your paintings. I enjoy teaching and will be there with you to help strengthen your painting skills and artistic voice. We will focus on design, color mixing, and capturing the mood of the day by understanding atmospheric perspective. This workshop is open to beginner and intermediate students.
 
Location: Luberon, France
Instructor: Ellen Howard
Cost: $3,940 before Jan 31
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

Join Jenny Muncaster for a fun week of inspiration and discovery. Jenny is committed to making creativity available to everyone, during this week-long painting holiday she will introduce you to different techniques using a whole range of wonderful art materials. Combining traditional & non-traditional methods & tools for exploring line, painting, print, texture & collage in your work. Using these new skills, capture & interpret your subject matter to create totally original artwork inspired by the beautiful surroundings of Clos Mirabel in the French Pyrenees. At the end of the workshop, you will have gained a tool kit of creative skills & techniques, a new artistic energy, and a portfolio of paintings to be proud of!
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Jenny Muncaster
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + £350 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

One week Painting retreat at a genuine medieval castle in South West France all expenses paid from Angouleme train station at start to end with American masters John Hulsey & Ann Trusty.
 
Location: Grand Brassac, France
Instructor: John Hulsey & Ann Trusty
Cost: $3,150 to $3,750
Sponsor: Copeland International Arts Inc
Website, email

Join me for an unforgettable painting holiday in Alsace, a stunningly beautiful part of France famous for its charming scenery and clear light which has captivated artists through the centuries. We’ll have plenty of time to capture once-in-a-lifetime experiences on the pages of our watercolor journals as we explore all the charming villages of Alsace. In this week-long workshop, I’ll offer daily demonstrations of techniques for painting the subject matter you’ll encounter each day. And you’ll be painting right along with me, since we learn more by doing than by simply observing. The workshop is suitable for all levels, but some experience with drawing and watercolor would be helpful.
 
Location: Alsace, France
Instructor: Leslie Fehling
Cost: $3,840 before 1/30/25
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

Award winning artist Jenny Aitken is passionate about the depiction of light in paint. She has taught thousands of students throughout her career, and recently written a book on the subject, Painting into the Light. During this week long atelier at Clos Mirabel in Jurançon, France, she will cover all her methods and techniques, both in the studio and plein air.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Jenny Aitken
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + £500 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Laura Silburn at Atelier Clos Mirabel for a 5-day botanical art workshop in the French Pyrenees ~ South West France. Enjoy wonderful surroundings, accommodation and delicious meals. Explore the botanical delights of this flora-rich part of the world. Laura will help you examine a chosen plant or vegetable through careful observation and sketchbook work. You will then compose an image that reflects its natural character whilst observing botanical truth. You will be guided on how to take your drawings through to a completed botanical watercolour and shown techniques for dry-brush finishing. Laura has work at Kew Gardens, The Hunt Institute, the Florilegium of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, and the Eden Project Cornwall.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Laura Silburn
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Róisín Curé for a fun week exploring the joys of sketching. Create your own original artwork and discover a beautiful area of France. As an artist, confidence is key. The path to confidence comes down to two things: volume of work produced, and being guided correctly. In this immersive, week-long course I will demonstrate and teach the key elements that will raise your game as an on-location sketcher: composition, accurate drawing technique, mechanics of watercolour for beauty and control, using a limited colour palette, and rendering correct values. Each day we’ll be out and about (or in studio in the case of bad weather), choosing small scenes in which you can capture a beautiful vignette of the area.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Róisín Curé
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 500 Euros tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Kathleen Speranza for an inspiring week of landscape painting. The surrounding fields and distant mountain views will provide a magnificent motif for the study of colour, light and space. Particular attention will be paid to atmospheric perspective and the subtle layers of colour needed to capture it. Students will learn a specific technique of oil painting which will build an image in three stages. Sketching, underpainting and the subsequent layering of thin paint will provide a method for translating the layers of space that can be seen in this uniquely beautiful landscape. A limited, premixed palette will enable a fluid and intuitive approach. Direct observation of light in the morning and early evening will provide a way to isolate and express the poetry of time and mood.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Kathy Speranza
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + $1,000 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

This course will focus on using colour in figurative painting to create atmospheric and expressive paintings. You will work from a life model, participating in exercises based in colour theory. You will try out techniques such as painting on a coloured ground and making colour paintings from black and white drawings. This foundational work will sharpen your observational skills and deepen your technical understanding of colour. Beyond these technical elements, we will explore how to use colour to express something of our inner lives. We will take inspiration from art history by studying artists such as Gwen John, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Sargy Mann, Pierre Bonnard, and Milton Avery. Throughout the course, you will benefit from personalized feedback and group discussions.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Katy Papineau
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + £350 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Rita Sabler for a week of travel sketching in South West France. Document your journey in a sketchbook using ink and watercolour. Let images and words work together in harmony to tell the story of place. Have you ever arrived in a new place and been immediately overwhelmed by its unique character and beauty? Our natural instinct is to capture this beauty, to cherish and remember it. Taking photos provides a quick and easy solution, but doesn’t allow you to really look and absorb the place with all of your senses to truly make it yours. Join us in this magical place with majestic mountains and hidden villages, creating a travel sketchbook that truly captures the place and honors its beauty.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Rita Sabler
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 450€ tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Giacomina Ferrillo for a week-long botanical art workshop in the French Pyrenees of South West France. Enjoy wonderful surroundings, delightful accommodation and delicious meals. This workshop is designed not only to provide basic technical notions and the main tools of botanical art, but also to teach you how to approach various botanical subjects. We will learn to use the ink pen with specific exercises, shadows, colour and how to compose sketchbook pages. We will tackle botanical watercolour techniques by mixing colours, organizing the palette and studying the control of the brushstroke. Thus, over the course of the week, we will create a composition with various botanical subjects different in species, shape and colour, respecting their character and scientific data.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Giacomina Ferrillo
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Celia Liberace for an immersive week focusing on portraiture and figure drawing. Create your own totally original artwork and discover a beautiful area of South West France. For the first half of the curriculum, we will focus on the portrait, weaving together classical and contemporary techniques to observe and represent form. The second half will focus on the figure, during which students will learn how to capture the gesture of a pose and build upon this impression while considering anatomical structures. Instruction involves the intersection between academic fundamentals – including perspective, light, shadow, volume, and geometry – and Celia’s own methods of loosening and guiding both the mind and hand.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Celia Liberace
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

We’ve chartered the entire ship! So, excluding the friendly crew and staff, just about every passenger will be a fellow sketcher! Your three master workshop instructors are: Brenda Swenson, Shari Blaukopf and Suhita Shirodkhar! This once-in-a-lifetime creative journey includes: 8 days and 7 nights of luxury travel on the historic River Rhine, from Amsterdam through Nijmegen-Arnheim (Holland), to Cologne and Mainz (Germany), through Strasbourg and Ribeauvillé (France), finally docking in Basel (Switzerland). Enjoy on-board sketching sessions, where you’ll learn how to quickly capture natural scenes, skies and townscapes as we sail to our next destination. You will have time to wander, shop and absorb local culture at every stop — or simply sit and continue sketching to your heart’s content.
 
Location: Strasbourg & Ribeauvillé, France
Instructor: Brenda, Shari and Suhita
Cost: starts at € 4,990
Sponsor: French Escapade
Website, email, 510-483-5713

Join Barbara Hirsekorn for a fun week exploring watercolour sketching in the beautiful grounds and surroundings of Atelier Clos Mirabel in South West France. This course is suitable for both beginners with basic knowledge and experienced watercolour painters. The workshop combines demonstrations, discussions about materials and techniques, practical exercises to develop skills, with plenty of individual attention and feedback. The topics of picture composition, colour theory and spatial drawing/painting are also covered in the course. We will alternate between plein air and studio work in the protected atmosphere of the Atelier. Two outings are included. A minimum of two hours walking and standing in front of the motive for a certain amount of time are required from participants.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Barbara Hirsekorn
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 550 € tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Nina Johansson for a fun week exploring the joys of sketching. Create your own totally original artwork and discover a beautiful area of South West France. Sketching from observation is a great way to experience a place! In this course we will bring our sketching tools outside to explore Clos Mirabel and its surroundings, capturing them on paper. We will be using lines and colours – pencils, pens and brushes – to capture the look and feel of everything around us. The subjects will cover whatever we encounter during the course, landscapes, architecture, villages, people, botanicals, food – everything becomes interesting to investigate when you sketch. We will start out on location and use the atelier for continued work and explorations.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Nina Johansson
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 350€ tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join textile artist Davana Robedee in South West France for a week of experimentation with shibori techniques to create patterns on cloth. For thousands of years and all across the world, people have been fascinated by the magic of indigo dye. In this five-day retreat, students will learn how to create graduations of blue from light to dark, and do a deep dive into shibori exploration. We will start with folded and clamped resist using Itajime shibori and then learn several stitch resist shibori techniques. Davana will introduce techniques with step-by-step demonstrations, but will also discuss methods of creating depth, perspective, and imagery to develop one of a kind artworks. Each student will leave with beautifully dyed fabrics, scarves, or wearables.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Davana Robedee
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + $950 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join textile artist and instructor Carolina Oneto in South West France for a week of playful experimentation. Participants will engage in an in-depth exploration of colour theory, learn a diverse array of complex piecing techniques, and use their newfound knowledge and skills to design their own unique imaginary place quilt. They will then carefully consider and select colours, shapes, and piecing techniques that fully capture the essence of their creative expression, bringing their designs into fruition through the art of sewing. This immersive, hands-on workshop serves as a platform for participants to explore, experiment, and ultimately realise their creative potential, empowering them to craft breathtaking quilts that serve as a tangible reflection of their individual style and artistic sensibilities.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Carolina Oneto
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + $850 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join basket weaving artist and instructor Annetta Kraayeveld in South West France for a week of playful experimentation with coloured paper, learning how to weave in an inventive way. This creative retreat incorporates traditional basketry techniques with a colourful non-traditional material – weaving small baskets and vessels with paper. Students of all skill levels are welcome, though some basket weaving experience is encouraged. We will start by painting paper and weaving 2 or 3 small sample baskets (with materials prepared by the instructor). The sample baskets allow students time to practice. When the painted paper has cured, students will weave additional vessels; either designing their own pieces or weaving designs included in the student booklet.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Annetta Kraayeveld
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + $600 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join Ùrsula Romero at Atelier Clos Mirabel for a week-long botanical art workshop in the French Pyrenees ~ South West France. Focusing on leaves, we will explore the drama that can be created through thoughtful lighting and clever glazing. You will have the exciting opportunity to capture the dramatic autumnal colours of leaves in an idyllic setting. From yellowing deciduous leaves to luscious evergreens; the countryside and gardens that surround our course venue are abundant. We will start with a short talk about leaves – their taxonomy, physiology and how to paint them larger than life. And you will learn how to tackle trickier things, such as the translucency and hairs, as well as realistic colors. This course is suitable for all levels.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Úrsula Romero
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + 450 € tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join visual artist Sarah Grace Dye in South West France for a fun week of paper making, mark making and book arts. You will also learn about natural ink making and develop the skills to create one or many keepsakes that capture the essence of your time in this beautiful place. Telling a story is always done through layers. Memories are always formed through a collection of layers drawing together the unique insight of our five senses. During this course we will consider each of the layers that make up a place. How do we recognise, acknowledge and document these layers?
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Sarah Grace Dye
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

During this painting holiday, Ali will be exploring a variety of water-based media including watercolours, Brusho, water soluble pens & crayons, and acrylic inks. She will encourage you to experiment to your heart’s delight…and then guide you through planning and including some of these ideas in your paintings. Ali has a lot of exciting techniques to share. You will also be encouraged to use materials usually saved for the kitchen as well as materials from nature. You will be greatly encouraged to add texture and pattern and interest to your paintings. This could be anything from print to splattering techniques. Ali pushes her students to experiment and therefore evolve as artists. She is known for her enthusiastic and fun-loving approach.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Ali Hargreaves
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + £300 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91

Join textile artist Lora Avedian for a week of playful experimentation with textiles and hand embroidery, learning how to draw botanical motives with stitch. We will begin by creating experimental hand embroidery samples with the aim of developing nature-inspired hand embroidery techniques to make a textile artwork or embellish a pre-made item of our own. Looking at a variety of classic hand embroidery and embellishment techniques, you will learn how to play with scale and materials to create different qualities of line, 3D relief and texture, and how to combine this with three-dimensional fabric flowers. This will be an intensive and experimental week where you can learn Lora’s trade tips and tricks to create an original and dynamic mixed-media textile design of your own.
 
Location: Pau, France
Instructor: Lora Avedian
Cost: 1595€ to 2895€ for accommodation + £445 tuition fee
Sponsor: Atelier Clos Mirabel
Website, email, +33.6.79.59.04.91