Perigord Art Retreats
FRANCE 2027
October 22nd - 31st
An Artist's Journey Through the French Countryside
Périgord Art Retreats | October 2027
Spend a week sketching, painting, exploring, and finding your creative voice.
Imagine wandering through the French countryside, sketchbook in hand, finding inspiration around every corner.
We'll explore charming medieval villages, stroll through colorful French markets, and discover beautiful places to sketch and paint. From winding cobblestone streets to rolling hills and autumn landscapes, we'll learn simple ways to capture what we see through shape, color, texture, and expressive mark-making.
Back in the studio, we'll use our sketches, photographs, and memories to inspire abstract landscapes, expressive still lifes, and mixed-media explorations. Rather than simply recreating what we see, we'll experiment, follow our curiosity, and discover new ways to express our own artistic voice.
And there's so much more to enjoy! Wonderful French food, beautiful surroundings, shared laughter, and friendships with fellow artists.I hope you'll return home with sketchbooks full of discoveries, artwork that feels uniquely yours, and renewed inspiration and confidence in your creativity.
SAMPLE LESSONS
1 The Art of Noticing — Plein Air Sketching
We’ll start by making quick, expressive sketches of the landscape. With simple drawing tools, we’ll learn to capture a place's feel through shape, value, line, and texture. The goal is to collect impressions, not finish drawings.
2. Painting on Location — Color & Atmosphere
Using watercolor and mixed media, we’ll find easy ways to paint the landscape. We’ll look at color, atmosphere, and expressive marks, letting the beauty around us inspire our work.
3. Expressive Still Life — From Market to Studio
After visiting local markets, we’ll set up simple still lifes with flowers, fruit, and other interesting items. We’ll use gestural drawing, contour lines, and playful mark-making to create lively, energetic drawings.
4. From Observation to Abstraction — The Landscape Reimagined
Back in the studio, we’ll look at our sketches and photos to find interesting compositions, colors, and patterns. Through small studies, we’ll learn to simplify, exaggerate, rearrange, and turn our observations into expressive abstract landscapes.
5. Creative Explorations — Experiments on Paper
We’ll spend time experimenting playfully, mixing drawing, painting, and mixed media. Working on paper lets us explore and discover freely. We’ll make small studies that could become finished pieces or spark ideas for future paintings.
