Classes & Residentials

GIFT VOUCHERS AVAILABLE HERE

Residential Life-drawing holiday

in Provence, France with Isabel Coulton,

25th – 30th September 2024 and May 19th – 25th & September 15th – 21st 2025

The Site

I am pleased to invite you to come and immerse yourself in this creative environment. Set in the beautiful house and grounds of Maison Sylvette a 17th century house built on the outskirts of the walled medieval village of Camaret Sur Aigues in the Vaucluse and 8km from Orange, it has been home to the French side of my family for 400 years.

Steeped in history, another story is added to it’s memory – one of a young girl born to an English mother and French father – an unlikely couple who fell in love in the Parisian art school Ecole Julien in the 20’s.

My grandmother went on to be an excellent artist and her paintings adorn the walls of our French home. As do those of her husband Emmanuel and daughter Sylvette, now Lydia. Sylvette watched her mother and father paint and was encouraged by her father who became a legendary art dealer on the Champs Elysée. At the age of 19 Sylvette had a chance meeting with Pablo Picasso, who changed the course of her life, giving her the self-confidence she lacked by choosing her to model for him. He made around 60 works of her ranging from great oils to drawings on paper and sculptures in sheet metal and bronze. The whole house emanates a creative vibe, and everywhere you look there is a beautiful subject to draw.

However it is old and with this comes a bit of peeling paint, a bathroom that needs a little restoration and few mod cons. There is internet in the dining room downstairs.

The Course

An introduction to Life Drawing skills which will deepen your understanding of the principals of all drawing. During these five days you can explore your creativity Drawing the human figure is really the cornerstone for all applied art practices. However, it doesn’t have to be the painful and terrifying experience it used to be. We are all artistic and express ourselves in a wonderful diversity of ways – as varied as there are human beings on this beautiful planet of ours.

My approach to teaching life-drawing is not to follow a dogged routine of laws, but to acquaint people with ways of looking and seeing to shed the shackles of fear that restrict our real enjoyment of making marks. Fear has never been a good instructor, whereas true enjoyment and interest in the process of sketching, coupled with lots of mind evading exercises and plenty of practice, is sure to bring increased understanding of the things we draw, which in turn brings ‘progress’.

In the mild month of Sept we will be able to spend time drawing from the model, working inside and outside, with time and freedom to experiment with different mark making materials and methods of expression.

Food

Marie-Noelle is our French chef – a local lady who cooks delicious Provençal hearty meals. Local bread, cheese and wine will accompany every meal. Vegetarian and vegan options agreed in advance.

There will be a couple of trips out for an aperitif, and a walk in the Dentelles; a beautiful collection of rocks behind the famous Gigondas wine appellation. We will also do some pleine-air drawings/paintings.

A visit to a market is a must and for this particular course we could visit Orange market on Thursday morning. Orange has a magnificent Roman amphitheatre and part of the original walls can be seen amongst the later architecture. I reserve the right to change our schedule according to individual needs and the weather.

When you know you would like to come plase pay a deposit of £500 to secure your space.  Please also contact me to say which room you would like to book if any Travel insurance is obligatory please, and I will need the contact details of next of kin.

Please wait to book your flights until you have confirmation that my minimum number of participants is reached.  Thank you.

Our home has 5 rooms and the Annex that are available to book.

Room 1 – the Master bedroom – a large double room close to the bathroom £120/night.

Room 2 – A double room – £100/night

Room 3 – A single room – £80/night

Room 4 – A twin room, one double bed and one single – £70/night

Annex – one double bedroom with air con, and adjacent bathroom, next to studio – £150/night (not yet ready)

Attic – single beds dormitory style, £30/ night. Down a flight of stairs to the loo and bathroom.

So, if you book class plus single room its – £1000 plus £480 (i.e. £80 x 6 nights) = Total cost £1480 all in.

Prices

£1000 per person plus a sliding scale for accommodation from £180 for 6 nights – all inclusive.

Non-participants are £1000 per person All inclusive.

For this you will get:

A room, full board ie Breakfast, Lunch and supper and drinks (wine, tea, coffee, juice), all art materials, paper, easels etc, the model and tuition. Trips out travel is included but expenses for coffee or wine in the café are yours. You will need to bring Pleine air kit if you have it, although you can use what is available from the studio, but this will be limited.

Arrive 24th Sept after 4pm, Depart 30th Sept before midday. Keep in touch about travel plans so that we can share lifts etc

Contact details for more info or to book your place:
email: info@isabelcoulton.com
Tel: 07920714387

Meet me your host and tutor:    www.isabelcoulton.com

Travel

By Car – Use either the car ferry from Dover or the Euro tunnel Le Shuttle from Folkestone. Both arrive Calais. Drive to Troyes for a stop overnight. Drive South to Orange and exit Orange Centre, following signs to Camaret sur Aigues – ask for further details. Around 14 hours.

Train – from London to Avignon, TGV. Pick up can be arranged…shared taxi about €50 this would be your cost. You could continue to Avignon Centre and change to get another train to Orange. I can pick up from Orange.

Flights – from London to Marseille or Nîmes and Avignon would be the best if available. Train from Marseille to Orange.

For travel advice try the app rome2rio

For advance train tickets:

SNCF ticket booking

For google maps of Area

Camper vans/ Gites/ Campsites

Camaret has a long list of gites which I can send you or try this link, https://www.camaret.org/fr/tourisme/hebergements/gite and a good website www.camaret.org

We have room in the garden for a camper van or two plus outdoor loo/bathroom.

There is a nice campsite at Violès Here

Download flyer of 2024 Residential

FUTURE DATES…2025 – May 19th – 25th, Sept 15th – 21st – 2025

BOOK HERE

---

TESTIMONIALS

“Isabel Coulton’s Residential, Life-drawing holiday 2019, can only be described as a wholly uplifting experience.

 With over a week’s practice of exercising the art of still life, life drawing, together with absorption of different art medias such as: line marking, shading, toning and composition, these all took place in a relaxed environment, making participants feel uninhibited and calm, creating a truly joyous exercise. 

 As a relative newcomer to the discipline, I came away from Isabel’s course with a true understanding of what makes art, art. It has made me feel more relaxed and able to translate what my eye sees to transcribe it correctly to myriad of art forms.

 This thoroughly worthwhile, inspiring holiday has not only given me a greater capability of creating art but also introduced me to a many like-minded people, who I met in a beautiful chateau in the delights of Provence. I loved it… a fantastic, extremely worthwhile journey.”  Fiona Sadek

“I am so pleased to have my drawings from your summer residential, and I see that perhaps I can draw a bit after all. Of course your inspiration and guidance were key.”  Penelope McAll

Much more than a holiday – full on art making with super creative support and inspiration from Isabel and her team.  Plus all the food, drink, swimming, conviviality and resting anyone would desire in a french chateau.  Travel by train is my tip. – Simon

“Thank you so much for such a wonderful holiday. I thought you managed to blend the perfect balance of great company, mouth-watering cuisine and, of course, life-drawing. Clearly, you had gone to great lengths to lay on all the materials we could possibly need, top quality models and your tuition was so inspiring. I look forward to another escape to the chateau!” – Philip Holmes

There are memories of our life drawing holiday, which need recalling .. in idyllic late summer sun, … among yoga meditations , eastern chanting… a swimming pool, clean, cooling…..a perfect chateaux  which amazed me, and our drawing sessions, in the courtyard ..still life using pencil. I wanted more time.. to focus, but then, inside the glass windowed  studio, we had longer, to get used to different styles of mark making, … in sight of beautifully poised models, very french, … and Dan, whose long red hair i enjoyed trying to recreate, in pastels , charcoal  and paint…  Every person’s drawings unique .. which developed every  day naturally… so that an exhibition of a selection of works in the courtyard, made a wonderful show!! If there were more time, we could create more … sketch books need more ..so I will give it more in coming weeks and months.. Our wonderful cooked meals,  so excellent! Would love to try so.e more wine tasting… tempted ! But so enjoyed company of everyone, thank you x – Xenia

“It was such a pleasure doing art with you and I am still feeling quite shining.  I can’t wait for more life drawing and have found out about some that goes on locally but also really look forward to any classes/courses that you might hold in Devon. I hope you know how much I enjoyed every bit of it..the teaching, the doing, the lovely people, the food and accommodation, the yoga and meditation, and just the whole thing. I wouldn’t change any of it…” – Virginia Morris

BOOK HERE