Painting vacations in France

The south of France is an artist’s friend – there’s usually reliably lovely weather, and a great light no matter what time of day you’re painting. In fact, it’s the quality of the light that’s said to have attracted so many artists through the years. Under their special sun, the countryside and the villages are scenic. There’s a wealth of colourful subjects: gardens full of roses, historic villages, stone houses with terracotta tiled roofs. The interest changes day to day: there are markets in nearby towns nearly every day of the week, and the countryside celebrates in summer with festivals and fetes.

As the term itself suggests, France is the spiritual home of painting en plein air. The practice was expounded by 18^th-century French artist Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, and taken up by the Barbizon school, whose members included Daubigny, Manet, Millet and Degas, and who painted in the countryside around Fontainebleau, outside Paris.

This school of painters attracted the attention of painters like Renoir and Monet. Later the Impressionist movement took painting en plein air as a key concept. Photographs of Claude Monet often show him sitting astride his canvas in front of a waterlily pond, sunhat on, cigarette poking out of his unmistakable beard. Paul Cezanne painted this way until his death from pneumonia, after being caught in a storm.

It wasn’t that artists were timid of the great outdoors before the 19^th century, rather hampered by their equipment. The advent of paint in aluminium tubes circa 1870 suddenly allowed artists to escape their studios without the difficulty of preparing their oil paints from scratch and carrying them on location. Further inventions suited to al fresco creativity followed – including the French easel, which folds up into a very portable case.

Today, you’ll still see artists propping up their easels in picturesque places – the scene, complete with battered hat and white parasol (useful for diffusing the light, and creating a bit of shade), is a timeless one.

If you’re a painter, you’ll know the appeal of a painting vacation already – it’s a week where you allow yourself to be creative in a sympathetic group. You’ll be able to swap ideas and techniques with other artists and an experienced tutor.

You’ll spend time both in a studio, and out in the landscape. On your outings you can spend time sketching or exploring – there’s a good mix of both.

Van Gogh famously used to eat his own paint. Don’t do this: our painting vacations are catered, with great home cooking. Washing off the charcoal dust and pastel powder and sitting down to a long communal meal is one of the great pleasures of a trip.

Painters start with the same view and end up with completely different pieces of art. In the same way, you’ll go on your own artistic journey, in an environment that could not be more supportive and friendly. These trips attract lots of solo travelers, but non-painting partners are welcome, too.

And at the end of the trip you’ll have created something that accurately depicts how you spent the vacation – a kind of self-referential souvenir.

Banish any idea of tortured artists isolating themselves for their art. On French painting vacations you’ll be getting out from behind the easel at every opportunity to engage with the community in which you’re staying.

France in summer is a riot of local festivals, son et lumiere (evenings with light projections and music used to tell the stories of chateaux and other tourism sites) and night markets.

The country has a ‘most beautiful villages’ association with 176 member villages. The scheme is designed to encourage tourism to villages that suffer from depopulation and are at risk of abandonment. These vacations encourage you to participate meaningfully in village life – whether visiting galleries, attending fetes or spending money with local businesses in the area.