Blog

Landscape Painting this week 26th June to 1st July

      This week I have been joined by Edith from Hong Kong and Mark from England for an Italian Landscape Painting course. The week started with a trip to Ascoli to see an exhibition of Giullio Gabrielli's Italian landscape paintings. From here we worked on key features in the landscape, buildings trees, focusing…
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This Year’s Painting Season is off to a Good Start

          The New painting holidays season 2016 at The Retreat has gone off to a good start. We kick-started the Spring Season with a 5 day Life-drawing course. Painters from the US as well as Europe have enjoyed learning the observation and gauging techniques so vital for any accomplished painter. with…
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A Great Start to the 2016 Course Season

We've just completed the first of our 2016 course. Kick-starting the season with a Life-Drawing class focusing on the human body. Returning and new guests enjoyed poses supplied by experienced Retreat model Lydia. Everyone enjoyed an opportunity to revisit drawing skills, paying particular attention to placement and gauging techniques. Everyone mastered traditional size by sight…
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Retaining the soul of a building

Keeping the Italian charm is at the heart of the restoration and renovation of our guest accommodation at the Villa. To give our guests that perfect Italian holiday experience, we are busy cleaning beams and oiling doors, restoring old walls in the bedrooms and coming up with lots of ideas of how to use the…
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Bringing you that summer feeling….

So, now that we are snuggled up at home with the snow outside getting higher by the minute, we thought we warm your hearts (and ours) with our great new postcards and flyers for the 2016 painting holiday season. Hope you like them as much as we do.          
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Off to see Ceasar in Rome

I am huge fan of Canadian artist Ray Ceasar. So, I'm off to see his second exhibition at Rome's Mondo Bizzarro gallery today. A great way to beat the winter blues. If you haven't heard of his work before, check it out on his website: www.rayceasar.com or why not visit the gallery yourself? www.mondobizzarro.net. So…
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Painting in studio…

Once more I have been working on trees. Nearly finished an Italian Oak with a mistletoe attached to it. While it dries i started a mini painting of a view from a roadside nursery.
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Snowy morning in Le Marche!

Hi, woke up to 50 cm of snow here in Force! It's still snowing! Making my futile attempts to clear pathways look ridiculous! However it needed to be done and I must continue with an autumnal landscape that I had started. So I will be painting snow again! Yippee.
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Ascoli Piceno

  The nearby Roman city of Ascoli Piceno boasts one of the finest Renaissance squares, Roman architecture galore and a wealth of Templar history. We love taking our painting groups to this amazing city for painting trips and sight-seeing. Throughout the year, it is home to a multitude of cultural highlights, from the annual medieval…
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