ATELIER PROVENCE

Top Art Workshop in France and Spain

Course Overview:

A unique art workshop in Provence, France followed by an art tour in Barcelona, Spain. An 11-night experience that combines seven days of plein air painting in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and four days visiting top art museums in Barcelona.  It is a great opportunity to paint in the land of Cézanne, to visit Barcelona’s great art and architecture, and to taste the best of Provençal and Catalan cuisine and wines. What can you ask more of an art holiday in Europe?

Our painting retreat in Provence is offered every late June when the lavender is in full bloom. It is open to artists of all levels, from the very beginners to the professional. You can use the medium of your choice: oils, acrylics, watercolors, etc. Since we limit the size of our groups to eight participants, we can offer personalized instruction and an intimate and stimulating environment.

Under the guidance of Prof. Yves M. Larocque, you will be painting inspiring landscapes. The Alpes de Haute Provence offers varied scenery, from lavender and poppy fields to ochre cliffs and beautiful mountain ranges. Also, we spend one day in Aix-en-Provence. In the morning we paint at the foot of the Mont Sainte-Victoire, one of Cézanne’s favorite subjects. In the afternoon we visit the artist’s beloved studio at Les Lauves, preserved as he left it in 1906.  Evenings are dedicated to stimulating art history lectures on various topics. And every day ends with our popular gourmet dinners accompanied by great regional wines.  For all these reasons, our art vacation in France and Spain is also perfect for accompanying partners.

During our seven-night art workshop in France, we stay in a comfortable house near Banon, a charming medieval village surrounded by lavender and wheat fields. Our house has several bedrooms with interior washrooms, a kitchen, a terrace, a dining room, a swimming pool, a jacuzzi, and a boulodrome.

After our painting retreat in Provence, we head to Avignon and take a TGV to Barcelona where we spend four full days visiting top art museums and Gaudí’s most important sites.  We stay in a beautifully located hotel in the Raval sector, just off Las Ramblas.  The area is full of restaurants, shops, and bars.

Price includes:

• 45+ hours art instruction (painting classes in Provence and art museum tour in Barcelona)
• transportation from the Manosque train station to our lodge (meeting point of our art workshop in France)
• 11-night double accommodation (we offer limited single rooms for a supplement of CAD$ 875 around US$ 650)
• 11 breakfasts
• 6 lunches
• 6 gourmet dinners including fine wines and after-dinner drinks
• easels for everyone, and turpentine and cobalt dryer for the oil painters
• transportation from our lodge to the Avignon TGV train station
• train ticket from Avignon to Barcelona (TGV high speed train)
• transportation to all painting/visiting sites and to all museums on schedule during our art tour in Barcelona
• entrance fees to Cézanne’s studio, Gaudi’s sites including the Casa Batló, the Palau Güell and the Sagrada Familia, the Contemporary Art Museum MACBA, the Museo Nacional de Arte de Catalunya, the Joan Miró Foundation, and the Picasso Museum
• the services of a Spanish-speaking interpreter on board
• all taxes and gratuities

Price: CAD$ 4700 (around US$ 3450)