Tuition

Our ‘plein air’ (outdoor) painting holidays are designed for participants to paint or draw, but also to have fun, relax, socialise and sightsee. Our art holidays are not intensive and cater for all abilities, including complete beginners. Painting in new surroundings provides inspiration and sparks your creativity.

We offer a unique learning experience for participants. You can immerse yourself in a week long painting trip in the beautiful Greek sun surrounded by a new inspiring environment, with the motivation and help from one of our experienced art tutors. Exploring new places means viewing the surroundings with a new perspective.

We highly recommend watercolours, gouache or drawing as the chosen medium for artists. More experienced artists can select acrylics. Unfortunately, pastels or oils are not offered as mediums on our holidays.

Tuition is mostly one-on-one at beautifully selected painting locations in Greece. Our tutors are experienced in providing advice and guidance to multiple participants with different abilities. Each day, we paint at one painting location outdoors, lasting up to three hours (on average). If the weather is not suitable, we will find an indoor space.

Please keep in mind that a painting holiday is first and foremost an enjoyable trip in a wonderful place with like-minded people. You are there to paint (or draw), rest, relax and take in the wonderful Greek setting and environment. We have spent considerable time finding the right balance between learning, creating, relaxing and socialising in each of our painting holidays.

Click on the tab below to find out what you will learn when using each of the following medium.

What will I learn on my painting holiday?

Throughout the week, you will be rewarded with artistic guidance from our experienced tutor. They will offer you useful and easy to learn techniques to incorporate into the creation of your artworks. Your art skills will improve over the course of the week. However, you will not become an expert or have mastered a particular technique in such a short time.

For the new artworks you will be creating, you will be guided by our tutor in learning about a variety of techniques and acquiring different skills. With patience and practice each day, your artistic abilities will improve.

For drawing and painting, you will learn and improve in the fundamentals of art including:

• How to sketch (draw) before you paint
• Composition; the focal point and space
• Perspective; vanishing points and depth
• Value; light and dark shadows, rendering and texture
• Observational skills; relating to plein air, drawing what you see in front of you
• Linework; measurements, horizontal and vertical lines
• Proportion; size, dimensions and volume
• Form and geometric shapes
• Colours; mixing and value distribution

When creating watercolour artworks, you will be guided, where relevant, in the following techniques:

• Wet on Dry (most commonly used)
• Wet on Wet (creates soft blends and base layers for landscapes)
• Dry Brush (used for texture and detail)
• Apply Salt (adds texture to the artwork)
• Background Wash (can create a certain mood or effect)
• Splattering (using brush to flick paint)
• Glazing (thin transparent washes or colour)
• And more

For artworks using acrylics, learn how to:

• Use of a range of flat and round paintbrushes
• Experiment with colour blending techniques
• Paint with monochromatic tones
• Make different hues and shades of colour
• Add thin or thick layers of paint or washes
• Create textures using a palette knife to also blend and mix paint
• Paint from background to foreground
• Add details using smaller brushes
• And more

For artworks using gouache, learn how to:

• Use different brushes correctly
• Experiment with paint to create opaque images
• Lighten or darken your colours
• Make the correct consistency and ratio of paint to water
• Create and use a ‘wet palette’
• Paint from background to foreground
• Add details using smaller brushes
• Keep your paints moist
• Lift colour from your artwork
• And more