Painting Holidays in the Lot et Garonne France
31.05.2020 - 06.06.2020
South West France
| 
Nicholas Logan
painting,
plein air
995 GBP
Nestled amongst wonderful wine regions, the Lot et Garonne is gorgeous – particularly in June. With wild flowers, field of sunflowers and beautiful medieval towns as a backdrop, it really is a corner of heaven.
Le Seguinet have teamed up with Nick Logan to provide a wonderful opportunity to learn about art and painting whilst enjoying the delights of rural France.
Who would enjoy it? – Anyone who has an interest in art and painting, enjoying food, wine and beautiful, historic and peaceful surroundings.
These holidays are perfect for solo travellers and couples / groups of friends
Accommodation
You will all be housed in the main Manoir.
It’s big, light and generally nice and cool with beautiful rooms.
There are three separate lounge areas. A very large and well equipped kitchen with table and seating, as well as a smaller dining area next door.
A very large patio with swimming pool and large outdoor eating area where most meals are held.
There are roughly 18 acres of land, various other buildings and lots of water in various forms.
Food
There will be a very brief informal meet to discuss the below:
Breakfast is provided with a variety of help yourself options.
Lunch is self-catered.
We found this worked much better as people generally liked to do their own thing in between the morning painting session and the afternoon session. It allows people to eat when they want and if we eat lunch whilst out and about it keeps things simple.
Regards shopping for personal food there is a small mini market just down the road in the nearby Village of Saint Front, a 5 minute walk. This is fairly basic but has enough to get by on.
Outside of that, the nearest large supermarket is 10 minute drive or so. Martyn and Tas will be on hand to place orders with for those that may not have access to transport etc. We have found it to be very a communal atmosphere regards shopping and food so please don’t worry that will not be able to get supplies etc...we will look after you!!
It made sense that some food and drink was bought communally e.g. butter, milk etc. (even communal alcohol) for this we suggest that there is a group kitty, and those who want in contribute a set amount at the beginning. We suggest that this kitty is left out in the kitchen for all to see and that any receipts are kept next to it for those that would like to view. Of course some people may want to opt out of communal shopping.
Whilst breakfast and dinner is provided obviously the lines get a little blurry with communal food being brought to the table, especially at breakfast. We hope that you understand the nature of the food situation being a little bit fluid (excuse the pun!!) in the way it operates.
A full dinner is always provided at the end of the day and weather allowing eaten by the pool on the patio; it generally makes for a lovely way to round off the day.
You are on holiday, so we don’t want you getting caught up to much in the upkeep of the communal areas, especially the kitchen and washing up. However we would appreciate the odd hand with people popping their own plates etc. in the dishwasher from breakfast and lunch and washing up anything used during lunch prep etc. and generally keeping the place clean and tidy.
During your stay please do say if there’s any issues that come up and we will be more than happy to address them.
Format (rough guide)
9am onwards - breakfast available
10am – 1pm morning painting session
3 – 6.30 (ish) afternoon session
7.30 Dinner
Rough itinerary, weather dependent:
Monday
Warm up day on which we stay in the grounds and paint.
There’s so much fantastic painting to be down on the grounds alone and this is a great gentle day to get into things, get settled and get used to painting outside. There will be a couple of small demonstrations and we will cover the basics to get people started.
We will end the day with a wander around the nearby village discussing what to look for in a subject when out and about. Also a great opportunity to snap some reference photos if you wish to work from these at a later date.
Tuesday
Morning
Painting session on the grounds
Afternoon
We have scrapped the non-painting afternoon in favour of a relaxed tour of the surrounding area from Martyn the host. Often non-painters like to join us, and as a result we may go in multiple cars. However if numbers wise this doesn't work we have access to a minibus.
This is part local tour, part sussing a few site options for the following days and of course snapping some reference doesn’t harm either. The tour ends with a drink in the beautiful hill top town of Monpazier, then back time in time for dinner.
Wednesday
Morning
A trip out to local Medieval Church and lovely village of Besse. A great place to paint and sketch a variety of subject matter.
Afternoon
Lunch out at either Besse or nearby larger town
Depending on the general feeling the afternoon will be spent sketching and painting in the town after lunch, or if people wish back to base for an afternoon painting session there. Or a mixture of both.
Thursday
Morning
Trip out to Monpazier. As mentioned above this is a classic French Bastide Town up high with wonderful views all around. There is endless subject matter of all sorts from people in the main square and sunlit streets to the stunning landscape surrounds.
Afternoon
Plenty of places to take lunch and a breather. The afternoon session tends to be a little slower paced. There’s plenty of shade under the arches in this town with plenty of places to sit discreetly and paint/sketch.
So all in all a lovely place to spend the majority of a day. We will play it slightly by ear on when we pack up and return to base. The day generally seems to reach a natural conclusion for most people...so may be a quick drink to round off then back to base for a relax before dinner.
Friday
By this point most people are happy to spend the final day back on the grounds either painting from life or using photos taken during the week.
For those of you that may want to get out and about still setting up 5 minutes down the road in the village is a great place to paint also...and of course I’ll doing the rounds for one-on-one tuition where ever you end up.
So I think that’s basically it.
It’s all fairly flexible around weather and the group.
If there’s any point of the week where you would like to stay on grounds rather than come out, that’s absolutely fine. We can take a look at what you have done once I return.
...and if any of you are feeling a bit nervous about painting out and about, please don’t be!
It is great fun and you can be as discreet and low key as you like, and set yourself up however you like.
If you want to spend the entire time sipping wine in the sun whilst ding a bit of sketching...we won’t stop you!!
One last thing, all though the weather can vary, generally this time of year, June, it can be very hot, so please pack accordingly and be prepared. We have people who did not, and they did suffer for it!
All in all though we are aiming for relaxing time in a beautiful area, with plenty of painting and concentrated tuition to further your skills.
