Venice

Painting Holidays in Venice

30th September – 7th October 2023

This trip will be best suited to those who are familiar with sketching, drawing and painting… The oh so romantic Venice always busy with admirers from all over the world. Venice crowds with summer visitors but late September is calmer and a perfect time to visit. We will be staying in a beautiful Villa on a canal just outside Venice. It will be wonderful to come home to an excellent meal and pretty garden after the hustle and bustle of Venice. There are quiet areas to sit and paint the canals, boats and pretty houses all nestled together.

The cost for this course is €4725 per student. If you are bringing a partner and sharing accommodation, the cost for the partner is €4525. See you soon I hope.

I can’t recommend Tessa Baker’s painting holiday more. Although more than 3 months have passed, I think about the class almost daily – our week with Tessa was so special in every way! I dream of the colors, I frequently use Tessa’s palette now (so different from the cool, Scandinavian palette that I have grown accustomed to), I dream of our venues, the light, the ambiance and the easy flow of our paintbrushes. Everything about the setting encouraged us to see, observe, sketch, paint, and internalize so many details into our work. We couldn’t not sketch, sketch, sketch and paint, paint, paint – so we did! After 3 months, I am still using the brilliant colors in a completely different way than I would have before. Trilby

Your Art Course in Venice :
An Overview of the Week

The course runs from Friday to Saturday.

Friday Travel
I will pick you up either from Venice Airport or the train station after 2pm.
On arrival, you will be welcomed with a drink and snack and shown your rooms. You have time to settle in, perhaps go for a little walk… Then we will all meet for an introductory chat and discuss the week together. Our lovely chef Anne will serve a sumptuous dinner for us in our spacious dining room or garden terrace.

Saturday
Breakfast at 9 am. Start class at 10 am with a stop for lunch, finish 4 pm. On the first day you will become familiar with your materials and learn about colour and water colour techniques. In the afternoon I will guide you in the composition and perspective. I will also teach you colour mixing and the colours that I use for this area. Saturday is a restful day to shake off jet lag and get ready for the week. If everyone would like to, we can visit Venice in the evening for a drink and to visit St Mark’s square.

Sunday/Monday
We will go to Venice early after breakfast (there is a large car park) which means it is easy to take our materials with us and of course the boat/buses that take us to any destination we desire. In the morning we will go to one of the quiet streets and water ways. I will help you with composition and choosing what you would like to paint for the after according to your ability. Street scenes, canal boats and water with beautiful bridges can seem a little daunting at first. So we will start the week with very simple compositions. Even the reflections of the houses in the water can make beautiful paintings We will stop for lunch for an hour and then paint our sketch for the next two hours. Stopping at 3pm leaving plenty of time to explore Venice before returning to the villa for dinner.

Tuesday
This will be our day of a beautiful canal and street scene disappearing out of view. The first part of the morning will be spent sketching the scene and the second part working on colours and water reflections. In the afternoon you will complete a painting. Quite possibly you will be tired and we will return home at 4 pm. For a quiet evening and delicious dinner.

Wednesday
Leaving the villa at 10.30 am. We will have a very different sort of day and drive to the Park Regionale Veneto de Delta del Po. This is a beautiful natural delta with gentle landscapes and flora and fauna to paint. This will be a very relaxed painting day. We will stop painting for a lovely picnic lunch and go back to the villa at 5pm

Thursday
Piazza San-Marco. Well we can’t do a painting trip in Venice without painting in Saint Mark’s Square. We should leave early to arrive in time to set up and find which composition you would like to work on for the day. I will paint a demonstration painting for you and then help you with your painting for the day. Of course we will stop for lunch and return to the villa by 5pm.

Friday
We will paint at the Villa, working on any unfinished paintings or something you may need help with or would like to work on. After lunch we will go over the weeks paintings. In the evening we will go into Venice take a Gondola ride before going to dinner in one of Venice’s fine restaurants.

Saturday:
Saturday Early breakfast and pack. Back to the airport or train station to continue ever onward.