Painting the Winter Landscape in Watercolour - 6-Day Retreat

1. 1st February to 7th February 2027 

2. 20th February to 26th February 2027 

 

Please click HERE for further details, pricing and reservation form

The winter months have much to offer the landscape painter. For sure, the bright, cheerful colours of spring and summer will have gone, but I have found that the months from November through February offer an unrivalled clarity of light and expressive skies, revealing dramatic warm highlights and cool shadows, or the soft muted shades of browns and greys, that handled sensitively, can add presence and atmosphere to a scene. It is also a good time to explore the details and textures that become evident once foliage has receded and the landscape invites a more searching inspection of its elements, presented at their most vulnerable. 

 

In the course, we will. enrich our appreciation of all that this season has to offer, with a specific focus on the following:
 

• Skies - clouds, mists, sunsets

• Understanding winter light

• Creating 'atmosphere' - what is that?

• How to paint convincing shadows and highlights

• Finding & painting landscape texture

• ​How to paint snow

• Colour mixes to produce muted, but interesting hues

• Building a winter sketchbook​

• Creating depth in landscape paintings

​

From the glistening creek and magnificent specimen trees, to characterful buildings and moss-covered rocks, our learning will be in the most delightful surroundings. Working on location and in the studio, we will take advantage of the inspirational landscape at Fine Creek, Virginia, as the basis for lessons and exercises, all designed to improve our skills and increase our enjoyment of the watercolour medium. The workshop is not weather-dependent. We will paint and sketch outdoors as the weather permits (this happens frequently during my winter workshops in VA), but we also work indoors, in The Mill's excellent studio space. The flexibility to switch between plein-air and studio work is a positive feature of the location.

​

Guests will be staying for the duration of the retreat at The Mill at Fine Creek, in individual cottages - cozy and luxuriously appointed - while enjoying top-class food, wine and hospitality for the duration of their stay.

​

​