Join artist and instructor Irena Spector for an immersive, week-long travel sketching retreat in South West France. Discover how to document your journey in your own sketchbook using expressive watercolour techniques, capturing local scenery, architecture, and atmosphere while developing your own unique visual narrative.
About this course:
Have you ever wanted to preserve a lasting memory of a place through sketching, but felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of detail in front of you? Whether capturing a sweeping landscape, a historic street in a hilltop village, or the lively bustle of a French café, knowing where to begin can often feel daunting. This workshop provides you with a supportive framework to kickstart your practice and the creative freedom to make every scene truly your own.
Travel sketching invites you to slow down, cultivate presence, and experience a location through close, mindful observation. Irena Spector will share her expressive watercolour and mixed-media approach, starting with the essentials, before exploring how to build depth using washes, vibrant colour, and line work. Even as a beginner, you will learn to use bold shapes and fluid colours to capture an immediate, atmospheric impression. From there, you will select key details and accents that give your sketch its unique character, without the pressure of drawing everything you see.
Set against the backdrop of Clos Mirabel with its historic manor house and panoramic views of the Pyrenees, as well as during a plein air excursion to Pau, you will explore composition across diverse subjects, from natural landscapes to architecture and everyday scenes. Irena will also share her simple, accessible technique for sketching figures as natural elements of a scene, requiring no prior knowledge of anatomical drawings.
Through step-by-step demonstrations, practical outdoor exercises, and individual guidance tailored to your experience level, you will gain confidence in deciding which elements matter in a scene, creating your sketchbook sketchbook at your own pace, and telling your own visual story.
Course Schedule and Timetable
Saturday – Arrival
4.00 – Check-in time from 4pm onwards. Guests arrive, settle in and explore Clos Mirabel
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House
Sunday – Beginning with broad forms
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
10.00 – 1.00 Welcome and introduction to materials and basic watercolour techniques. Through a studio demonstration and guided exercises, explore how to select a viewpoint, organise a composition and begin a sketch with washes and clear shapes.
1.00 – 2.30 Lunch at Clos Mirabel
2.30 – 4.30 Guided sketching at Clos Mirabel. Apply the approach on location, moving from broad forms towards selected details, with individual guidance.
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House
Monday – Landscape and atmosphere
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
10.00 – 1.00 Demonstration and exercises exploring colour relationships, light, edges and the use of white paper in a landscape sketch. Observe the grounds outdoors, weather permitting.
1.00 – 2.30 Lunch at Clos Mirabel
2.30 – 4.30 Sketch the landscape at Clos Mirabel, with room for both shorter studies and sustained work. Individual feedback throughout the session.
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House
Tuesday – Pau and the urban scene
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
10.00 – 1.00 Sketching in Pau. A demonstration introduces Irena’s approach to a busy city scene: establish the main shapes and colour relationships, then select the details that give it character. Participants work on location with individual guidance.
1.00 – 2.30 Lunch at Clos Mirabel
2.30 – 4.30 Introduction to simple, expressive figure sketching and ways to include people naturally in an urban scene. No anatomy background is needed. Continue sketching with individual guidance, followed by a short group review.
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House
Wednesday – Free day: No scheduled tuition.
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
We suggest exploring Pau or beyond
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House
Thursday – From observation to story
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
10.00 – 1.00 Studio exercises using sketches and photographs from Pau as references. Explore gesture, simple figure shapes and the relationships between people and their surroundings.
1.00 – 2.30 Lunch at Clos Mirabel
2.30 – 4.30 Demonstration on building a more developed composition from observations made on location. Participants create a sketch that brings together setting, figures and a sense of story, with individual guidance and time to share work.
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House
Friday – Personal choices and stories
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
10.00 – 1.00 Choose a subject and approach for a personal sketch. Bring together methods explored during the week: broad forms, colour, selected details, human presence where useful, and expressive accents.
1.00 – 2.30 Lunch at Clos Mirabel
2.30 – 4.30 Continue working with individual feedback. Share reflections on the week and select work for the evening exhibition.
6.00 – Aperitifs before 4 course dinner in the Manor House
Saturday – Departure:
8.30 – 9.30 Buffet breakfast of local and regional produce
Check-out 11am
Please note this programme may be subject to change depending on the weather. Please ensure you bring sensible walking shoes, layers, waterproof jacket, water bottle, sunscreen and a hat.
Non-painting guests: We are more than happy to welcome non-painting guests, accompanying partners, family or friends. There are plenty of activities to experience around Clos Mirabel, that will make your holiday unforgettable. Click here for more information.
The Art Studio offers a spacious open plan layout of 75 m2. It is available at all times during your stay. Click here for more information.
