Painting Course Holidays
in the South of France
Luxury Painting Course Holidays for beginners as well as experienced painters.
Mitch Waite's one-week painting course holidays provide the very best in tuition, wonderful food, beautiful accommodation and inspiring surroundings.
Our "All-Inclusive" package means that everything is taken care of, leaving you free just to relax, enjoy your holiday and improve your painting skills (or start from basics if you're a beginner).
Expert professional tuitionYour tutor for the course is Mitch Waite. With over 25 years professional experience including 10 years running these courses, Mitch is not only a highly successful painter exhibiting and selling internationally but also a gifted teacher.
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Beginners
If you're a complete beginner you will be guided through the very basics of painting. Step-by-step Mitch will demonstrate the fundamental principles and then be there by your side to help you create your own paintings. By the end of the course you will have a good understanding of composition, drawing, perpective, tonal values and colour. You will have also completed several paintings from our landscape, street scenes, live model and portrait sessions.
For the more experiencedOur courses are for all levels of experience but don't let that worry you if you are an experienced artist looking to learn advanced techniques; the demonstrations are divided so that the beginners can work on basics while advanced students can get on with something more serious. Of course there's nothing to stop you looking in on what the beginners are doing if you fancy some "back to basics" exercises. | |
Art Materials
We provide all the materials you will need for the course which includes oils, acrylics, watercolours and charcoal. Easils, brushes, palettes, panels, paper, canvas, turpentine etc are all provided. You're free to work with all or as many mediums as you wish.
Demonstrations
Mitch starts each session with a demonstration. These are usually taken directly from the subject which may be a landscape, street scene, still life, live model or portrait. Everything is explained, how to see the subject and compose it, drawing to scale, perspective, measuring and translating tonal values, seeing, relating and mixing colours, brush stroke techniques, blocking in, working with detail, abstracting, creating light and atmosphere, emotion and mood, and finally (everybody's favourite) getting free and loose.
Locations
The course is mainly centred in and around Vence. See Location Map. It is one of the most attractive towns in the region and has been the home of many well known artists including Matisse. (The Chapel Matisse is a popular destination). We are based at the Miramar hotel where there is an incredible view if the nearby mountains that form the start of the Lower Alps. The old town of Vence is highly picturesque, filled with art galleries and is fantastic for beautiful street scenes - Tuesday and Friday morning there is a market bustling with atmosphere, colour, sounds and exotic smells.
We usually have couple of excursions a little further afield to explore new scenery this may include La Haut de Cagnes with the famous Grimaldi Castle, Pont du Loup for the magnificent gorge, Antibes for the port, old town and Picasso Museum, Saint Paul de Vence which has more galleries than you could ever imagine plus the renound Fondation Meaght (Modern art musuem), there is also Biot famous for glass-blowing, and so many more places - including Nice itself (although we usually avoid it unless requested as it's so busy).
Provencal Cuisine
The great thing about a painting holiday in Vence is the number of excellent restaurants, but don't worry about choosing - we've already done that for you and arranged everything. You will have a choice of dishes and will enjoy delicious provencal cuisine complimented with wine - just what you deserve after a hard days painting! All lunches and dinners are included in the course fee (except one free evening). Bon apetit!
Non-Participants
Non-painting partners are welcome, you can join us on the excursions and for lunches and dinners if you wish or simply do your own thing (Golf, sight-seeing, museums, beach, treking, biking, water-sports ...) Vence is centrally located with easy bus routes down to the coast. Local information.