Creative breaks
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Impressive setting for daubing paint on canvas
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Short haul
Painting at the Château de Lanquais, Dordogne
Even
if stick men and smiley faces are your personal artistic limit, who
could resist a week in the glorious French countryside, staying in a
picture-postcard château, eating local food, quaffing local wine, and
nothing else to do except daub paint on a canvas in the fresh air?
The
course, which takes place in the Dordogne, was established in 1997. Run
by artist Adam Cope, expect to find an extremely accommodating ethos,
which welcomes everyone from total beginners to ‘Watercolour Challenge’
finalists. It doesn’t matter what medium you work in, either: you don’t
have to put on a panama hat and grow a white beard to play the tortured
artiste here. Photography, pastels, pen-and-ink, acrylics, oils and
watercolours are all catered for (though you’ll need to bring some of
your own equipment).
The package costs €780 (around £535) per person, which includes the
use of equipment and studios, as well as full-board accommodation at
the Renaissance château itself. Not far from Bergerac, it’s been
privately owned for generations. Your room will be impressive yet
comfortable, with a scattering of antiquities and wall hangings topped
by a lofty ceiling. Outside, where you’ll eat when it’s fine, are large
grounds and a clean swimming lake. Three of the evening meals during
your eight-day stay are formal, with fine wines and multiple courses.
Treated as banquets, you’ll repair to a candlelit hall complete with
frescoes and, it’s hoped, befriend the other people on your course (who
rarely number more than ten). Otherwise, the food is simple,
auberge-style fare that you can help yourself to. The emphasis here is
on doing as you please. Budding Monets can opt in and out of activities
and an extra day has been deliberately added so no one feels rushed.
Typically unpretentious is the fact that non-painting partners – those
who presumably come simply to eat and drink –are welcome too, and at a
slightly reduced price.
Painting Holidays at Château de Lanquais (0033 5 53 01 22 91/ www.artists-atelier.com).
Getting
there Bergerac has an airport and a train station. Flights with Ryanair
cost from £82.40 return incl tax (www.ryanair.com). By train: take the
Eurostar to Lille from £75 return (www.eurostar.com), and then the TGV
to Bergerac – from €95.60 (£65) return.
