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September 30 - October 7, 2023
Come to enjoy a masterful tuition by Keiko Tanabe, subject matters will be landscape, Mediterranean seascape, old historic city scape, locations in the charming 18th century farmhouse where the participants will stay. Sicily it’s like a dream, colorful sunset, olive groves, lined vineyards, picturesque villages with narrow streets, churches, a never ending range of restaurants and cafés, blue skies and beautiful nature, jovial people, traditional foods and great local wine. The participants will benefit from daily one-on-one guidance and a group sharing with Keiko. You can expect to learn about composition, how to capture lights and atmosphere, methods and techniques of creative process. Limited single rooms for a supplement.
Location: Marsala, Italy
Instructor: Keiko Tanabe
Cost: 1950 €
Sponsor: Salinara
Website, email

October 1-10, 2023
A thought-provoking and inspirational art workshop open to artists of all levels and media (oils, acrylics, watercolors, etc.). Join us for 9 full days of plein air painting, art history/theory lectures, touring, and gourmet cuisine in the most beautiful area of Tuscany. Our teaching approach and groups limited to eight participants allow us to offer personalized instruction and a stimulating learning environment. Cost of CAD 3775 (around US$ 2900) includes art instruction, 9-night double accommodation, all breakfasts, 8 lunches, 8 gourmet dinners including wine, transportation from and to the Arezzo train station, transportation to all painting sites (Montepulciano, Cortona, Pienza, etc.), train ticket to Florence, and a guided tour to the Uffizi Museum. Limited single rooms for a supplement.
Location: Lucignano, Italy
Instructor: Prof. Yves M. Larocque
Cost: US$ 2900
Sponsor: Walk the Arts
Website, email, 800-611-4789

October 2-9, 2023
For those who love Italy and wish to combine learning the Italian language with painting its spectacular scenery, we offer a true “cultural vacation.” Elisa Bassetti is Director of the Artelingua Language School which specializes in teaching Italian Language and Culture as a second and foreign language. The Italian language course is divided into two parts: standard Italian and Italian for Arts. The second part is preparatory for the painting workshop that follows with artist Arnhild Kart. This uniquely immersive workshop will be held in the beautiful, family-run Hotel Le Fontanelle with an excellent restaurant.
Location: Assisi, Italy
Instructor: Elisa Bassetti & Arnhild Kart
Cost: 3800 €
Sponsor: Schola Artis Pro Vobis
Website, email

October 8-15, 2023
Join Cindy Briggs and Theresa Goesling for their workshop at the stunning Salinara Art Farm on the west coast of Sicily. Cindy and Theresa will give daily painting lessons and individual help, encouraging support, share how to draw and simplify your subject, play with colors and water, textures, composition, writing and precious advice on how to create and improve your watercolor journal pages. Resume of the workshop, final discussion about student’s works with Cindy and Theresa. Sicily is a unique island that has been shaped by many cultures over many thousands of years. Salinara is a 10 minute walk from the Sea, close by are salt pans with windmills, lined vineyards and olive groves. Limited single rooms for a supplement.
Location: Marsala, Italy
Instructor: Theresa Goesling and Cindy Briggs
Cost: From 2900 €
Sponsor: Salinara
Website, email

October 15-22, 2023
Join watercolor artist Jeni Caruana on the beautiful island of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. Jeni is an experienced tutor for all levels of artists, from beginners to advanced. She encourages everyone to challenge their boundaries and make new discoveries about their own unique expression. Whether it’s basic techniques to give a firm background, or a nudge into loosening up rigid habits, Jeni gives individual attention and inspiration to everyone in the group. The sessions are taught in watercolour, because it is so portable and easy to use on site, but the principles of drawing and colour apply to all mediums, so artists are welcome to bring whatever they are most happy with. Or to bring something different to experiment!
Location: Marsala, Italy
Instructor: Jeni Caruana
Sponsor: Salinara
Website, email

October 16-20, 2023
Mariette Egreteau Martelli was born in France but now lives in Arezzo, where she has been a teacher for more than thirty years. She has a scientific background and has always been interested in the link between science and art, with her curiosity fully satisfied in the spectacle offered by nature. Light playing on ordinary objects, and the transparency of sky and water are her favourite subjects. She mostly uses watercolour to express herself, for its immediacy and union between water and light. She is bilingual in French and Italian and fluent in English.
Location: Assisi, Italy
Instructor: Mariette Egreteau Martelli
Cost: 2500 €
Sponsor: Schola Artis Pro Vobis
Website, email

October 21-28, 2023
Our 35th workshop in Italy includes 7 nights, 8 days in a three-star hotel with an attached award-winning health and beauty spa; hotel was the 15th Century Pope's summer home; all rooms with private baths; hotel has an elevator; one-on-one plein air painting instructions; oils, pastels, water-based media welcome; painting demos; beginners to advanced; most meals; all land transfers in Italy including roundtrip to Rome and/or airport; paint in Montechiello, Pienza, and Bagno Vignoni; 1/2 day side trips to Siena and San Gimignano; includes spa services of the Roman sauna, jacuzzi, and thermal pools; many fee-based health and beauty spa services available to you through the hotel; cooking classes featuring Tuscan cuisine available for artists and guests.
Location: Bagno Vignoni, Italy
Instructor: Sam D'Ambruoso
Cost: $3,575. artist; $575 single room additional
Sponsor: Sam DAmbruoso Art Workshops DAmbruoso Studios
Website, email, 203-758-9660

November 8-15, 2023
The regions of Tuscany and Umbria are large, filled with many sites worthy of visits and we have selected some of the most notable to include in the Treasures of Tuscany and Umbria itinerary. Each day offers the chance to visit, photograph and explore new destinations. Breakfasts, Lunches and dinners are included and we return to our home-base in Cortona to dine together in a variety of Cortona landmark restaurants and trattorias!! After dinner enjoy relaxing in one of the piazzas, or take in music, film or special events.
This is a tour with daily opportunities to photograph a wide range of subject!! Artists may bring portable painting supplies!
Location: Cortona, Italy
Instructor: Patrick Mahoney
Cost: From $3850.00 per person, all inclusive
Sponsor: Toscana Americana Workshops
Website, email, 978-407-7127

December 6-13, 2023
The regions of Tuscany and Umbria are large, filled with many sites worthy of visits and we have selected some of the most notable to include in the Treasures of Tuscany and Umbria itinerary. Each day offers the chance to visit, photograph and explore new destinations. Breakfasts, Lunches and dinners are included and we return to our home-base in Cortona to dine together in a variety of Cortona landmark restaurants and trattorias!! After dinner enjoy relaxing in one of the piazzas, or take in music, film or special events.
This is a tour with daily opportunities to photograph a wide range of subject!! Artists may bring portable painting supplies!
Location: Cortona, Italy
Instructor: Patrick Mahoney
Cost: From $3850.00 per person, all inclusive
Sponsor: Toscana Americana Workshops
Website, email, 978-407-7127

April 17-24, 2024
Picture yourself sitting in an outdoor cafe in one of the piazzas, sketchbook in hand, immersed in capturing the life around you while enjoying a cappuccino. Let me share the techniques I use in my work using a very portable means of sketching - pen and ink and watercolor – to record the beautiful, sensitive lines of an old building or the bold strokes of a street scene. Learn to zoom in on the important elements when working in the field to create interesting compositions and lasting memories with texture and rich washes of color!
This class covers pen and ink and watercolor wash techniques, composition and simple perspective.
Location: Cortona, Italy
Instructor: Ann Thomas
Cost: From $3850.00 per person
Sponsor: Toscana Americana Workshops
Website, email, 978-407-7127

April 20-27, 2024
Experience magical Sicily, enjoy breathtaking vistas, tiny villages, amazing Sicilian gastronomy and local wine.
For those lovers of watercolour painting, the process of quickly developing comfortable relationship with methods and materials
Subject of workshop effectiveness, the state of painting and community over local cuisine and wine at the villa. .
Sound good? Come to paint en plein air or just to enjoy the company of fellow artists.
Location: Marsala, Sicily, Italy
Instructor: Stewart White
Cost: From 2050 $
Sponsor: Salinara - Art Farm | Retreat Centre
Website, email

May 4-11, 2024
Join Alyssa for a week of immersing yourself in the sights, sounds, and local color of the Tuscan landscape. Based in Beautiful Cortona, experience all the wonders Tuscany has to offer – the rolling countryside, picturesque hill towns, and breathtaking vistas through the eyes of the artist! With Alyssa’s guidance as a veteran plein-air painter and teaching artist who has spent the past two decades sharing her passion for travel and landscape painting throughout the US and Europe, this will be a week like no other! Get ready to improve your artistic knowledge, expand your creativity, build connections, and embed your experiences and memories of your Italian adventure in the beautiful artworks you create!
Location: Cortona, Italy
Instructor: Alyssa DeLaBruere
Cost: From $3850.00 per person, all inclusive
Sponsor: Toscana Americana Workshops
Website, email, 978-407-7127

May 11-18, 2024
Join us for this weeklong plein air workshop in beautiful Tuscany and Umbria. Create vignette sketches and paintings of the dramatic vistas, colorful architecture, bustling people and more during your time on this magical trip to Cortona, Italy. Morning and afternoon sessions, followed by individual instruction, will cover the basic concepts of atmospheric and linear perspective, capturing people, architecture, and dramatic lighting. With pen and paper in hand, you’ll quickly document the sites. Add a touch of watercolor to enhance your sketches. Your art supplies are light and easy to tote making this ideal for all levels of artists. The traveler’s sketchbook is a wonderful way to document your trip in a carefree way.
Location: Cortona, Italy
Instructor: Jo Ellen Reinhardt
Cost: From $3850.00 per person, all inclusive
Sponsor: Toscana Americana Workshops
Website, email, 978-407-7127

May 25 - June 1, 2024
A Sketchbook Journaling Workshop with Karen Ramsay.
Come join us and capture Lake Como in watercolor! As we fill our art travel journals with sketching and watercolors, Karen will give us tips and tricks for improving this special skill. Sketching on location, while traveling, is an art form that you can take with you on every future trip and the sketches that you create will become a treasured visual diary of your travel. During the week, we will guide you to the finest spots along the shores of the picturesque Lake Como with its charming lakeside towns, its Renaissance architecture, Italian villas and terraced gardens. Lake Como has a timeless beauty where you will find endless inspiration to create art!
Location: Bellagio, Lake Como, Italy
Instructor: Karen Ramsay
Cost: $3,890
Sponsor: Alpine Creative Tours
Website, email, 970-846-9000

June 1-8, 2024
Arnhild Kart’s actions are always based on the clear awareness that only the knowledge and determination of the artist can transform a work from the “chaos,” inherent in the raw, inanimate material, to the “work of art” rich in vitality and concrete in its being. The instructor will support you in experimentation and surrendering more and more to the painterly process and the bold use of colour.
Location: Assisi, Italy
Instructor: Arnhild Kart
Cost: 2600 €
Sponsor: Schola Artis Pro Vobis
Website, email

June 10-19, 2024
A thought-provoking and inspirational art workshop open to artists of all levels and media (oils, acrylics, watercolors). Nine full days of plein air painting, art history/theory lectures, touring, and gastronomy in the most beautiful area of Tuscany. Our teaching approach and groups limited to eight participants allow us to offer personalized instruction and a stimulating learning environment. Cost of CAD 3975 (around US$ 3000) includes instruction, 9-night accommodation in single and double rooms (limited single rooms available at no extra cost), all breakfasts, 7 lunches, 9 gourmet dinners including wine, transportation from and to the Arezzo train station, transportation to all painting sites (Montepulciano, Cortona, Pienza, etc.), train ticket to Florence, and a tour to the Uffizi Museum.
Location: Lucignano, Tuscany, Italy
Instructor: Prof. Yves M. Larocque
Cost: US$ 3000
Sponsor: Walk the Arts
Website, email, 800-611-4789

August 7-24, 2024
The Work of Qi Yang challenges two painting conceptions of Western and Eastern arts constantly. Yang merges Zen, together with German Expressionism that emphasizes emotion in the paintings through lines, colors, composition and technique. This workshop offers painting combined with poetic thinking for the Italian landscape – from the region Toscana to Assisi. We will at first learn to sketch nature directly in front of beautiful surroundings, for example, trees, forests, mountains, waters and ancient castles, churches, old houses, etc. After sketching the techniques of aquarelle and color ink will be taught, both of which can be used either separately or as mixed technique. Accompanied with the workshop the art theory of the composition on the landscape painting will be taught.
Location: Assisi, Italy
Instructor: Qi Yang
Cost: 2600 €
Sponsor: Schola Artis Pro Vobis
Website, email

September 14-21, 2024
Arnhild Kart’s actions are always based on the clear awareness that only the knowledge and determination of the artist can transform a work from the “chaos,” inherent in the raw, inanimate material, to the “work of art” rich in vitality and concrete in its being. The instructor will support you in experimentation and surrendering more and more to the painterly process and the bold use of colour.
Location: Assisi, Italy
Instructor: Arnhild Kart
Cost: 2600 €
Sponsor: Schola Artis Pro Vobis
Website, email

September 21-28, 2024
Sicily – It's on everyone's bucket list, with colorful sunsets, olive groves, vineyards, and picturesque villages with narrow streets, a never ending range of restaurants and cafés, blue skies and beautiful nature, it’s a painters paradise… And it will be our home for 7 days. The workshop is hosted by the retreat center Salinara. Our daily watercolor routine will include daily demonstrations by Gary, along with time for individual instruction. Afternoons will vary between painting time, exploring the region on your own, or possible one of the many activities offered through Salinara – on designated days Gary will conduct group critique over cocktails before the evening meal.
Location: Marsala, Sicily, Italy
Instructor: Gary Tucker
Cost: From 2300 $
Sponsor: Salinara - Art Farm | Retreat Centre
Website, email

September 28 - October 5, 2024
Come to enjoy a masterful tuition by Keiko, subject matters will be landscape, Mediterranean seascape, old historic cityscape. We’ll be staying at Salinara, an 18th-century farm, surrounded by vineyards and olive groves, only a ten minutes walk to the Mediterranean sea. Sicily is like a dream… colorful sunsets, olive groves, lined vineyards, picturesque villages with narrow streets, churches, a never ending range of restaurants and cafés, blue skies and beautiful nature, jovial people, traditional foods and great local wine. The participants will benefit from daily one-on-one guidance and a group sharing with Keiko. You can expect to learn about composition, how to capture lights and atmosphere, methods and techniques of creative process. Limited single rooms for a supplement.
Location: Marsala, Sicily, Italy
Instructor: Keiko Tanabe
Cost: From € 2050
Sponsor: Salinara - Art Farm | Retreat Centre
Website, email

October 12-19, 2024
Join us for a plein air watercolour painting retreat in delightful and peaceful West-Sicily with Polish watercolorist Michal Jasiewicz. We are so proud that he’s coming to SALINARA for the second time. Michal will be your tutor during your stay at the stunning Salinara Art Farm, in the Trapani region. Daily painting excursions to surrounding salt pans, local markets, vineyards, villages such as the medieval town Erice, and Archeological Park of Selinunte, one of the most flourishing classical civilizations of the Mediterranean area. The workshop will take you through selecting a dramatic composition and simplifying it, tone, light, color theory, effects and how to build up a watercolour painting in a structured, demonstration-led setting. Limited single rooms for a supplement.
Location: Marsala, Sicily, Italy
Instructor: Michal Jasiewicz
Cost: From € 1750
Sponsor: Salinara - Art Farm | Retreat Centre
Website, email

See also:
Art Books for Watercolor & Gouache |
Tutorials for Watercolor & Gouache