Discover the beauty of the Alentejo through the expressive language of landscape and modern impressionist painting. Join acclaimed artist Lizzie Black in the historic village of Monsaraz for an immersive week of creativity, where dramatic landscapes, beautiful light, and a supportive learning environment come together to inspire your artistic practice. Designed for painters who want to deepen both their technical skills and personal expression, this creative getaway focuses on the principles of landscape painting through a contemporary impressionist approach.
Lizzie’s teaching is centred on building a strong understanding of the foundations of painting. Through demonstrations, individual guidance, and plenty of time painting en plein air and the studio she will help participants develop confidence in their own work.
The Alentejo offers an extraordinary setting for landscape painters. Its golden light, rolling hills, ancient olive groves, whitewashed villages, and timeless architecture provide endless inspiration. Throughout these days, you’ll create a collection of paintings that capture the atmosphere and character of this remarkable region while enjoying the camaraderie of a small group of like-minded artists.
Whether you’re looking to refine your plein air painting, embrace a more expressive impressionist style, or simply spend a week immersed in art in one of Portugal’s most beautiful destinations, this curated art experience offers the perfect balance of learning, inspiration, and relaxation
Cosima Delamare is a French illustrator based in Paris. Her work explores emotions, humor, as well as Hollywood imagery and pop culture. Raised in an artistic environment, she developed a strong interest in drawing and visual storytelling. After studying literature and cinema, she trained in applied arts and worked for several years as an art director at Stylist magazine, where she developed a rich visual culture. At the same time, she continued to study drawing, first in Ivry and later at École Estienne. She gradually developed her own visual language using colored pencils and graphite, creating images with a soft and painterly quality. Today, she regularly collaborates with the press, illustrating topics ranging from trend analysis to news stories and social issues. Her work has appeared in publications such as French Marie Claire (where she was invited as artist in residence) as well as other editorial outlets. She also works with brands in the fashion and beauty industries, including FIRN and No7.
know more about Cosima visit her website here.
Step away from the everyday and immerse yourself in five extraordinary days devoted to a curated Bird & Nature Experience. This exclusive and bespoke getaway offers a rare opportunity to spend time with renowned wildlife artist and scientific illustrator Joris De Raedt, exploring the art of seeing and drawing birds directly from nature.
Guided by Joris, you will learn to look beyond the surface: to notice posture, movement, character, behaviour, light and the subtle details that bring a bird to life on paper. A dedicated local nature and bird guide will accompany us into the landscape, sharing their intimate knowledge of the area and taking you to some of the most remarkable places to discover bird nests and nesting habitats. These excursions offer a unique glimpse into the hidden world of birds, allowing you to observe their environments, behaviours and intricate relationships with the landscape. Through a combination of intimate field sessions, guided nature walks, outdoor sketching, watercolour studies and relaxed studio time, Joris will share the methods and insights developed throughout his career as a wildlife artist.
The retreat is intentionally limited and bespoke and because this is a boutique creative discovery, rather than simply a workshop, everything is taken care of for you. From carefully chosen locations and expert-guided excursions to beautiful accommodation, thoughtfully prepared meals and the details in between, every element is curated to allow you to fully immerse yourself in these five days journey into the beautiful birds’ s life.
To know more about Joris’s work visit his website
Step into a transformative creative experience on this immersive watercolour retreat with Emma Weekes in Portugal, where art becomes a pathway back to yourself. Guided by Emma’s intuitive and expressive approach to painting, this retreat is designed to help you break free from hesitation and reconnect with your natural creativity.
Set against the calming beauty of the Portuguese landscape, you’ll be invited to slow down, observe deeply, and rediscover the joy of making marks that feel alive, personal, and free. This is more than a painting holiday, it is a reset. A chance to loosen expectations, release perfectionism, and rebuild confidence from the inside out.
Through Emma’s gentle but empowering teaching style, you’ll learn to trust watercolour as a responsive, flowing medium, allowing it to guide rather than control your process. Each day unfolds through immersive sessions focused on florals, botanicals, and the surrounding natural world.
Whether you are returning to creativity after time away or seeking to deepen an existing practice, this retreat offers a powerful opportunity for artistic and personal renewal. You’ll leave not only with a collection of work, but with a renewed sense of confidence, clarity, and creative freedom that extends far beyond the page. This is your invitation to paint more freely, see more deeply, and create with a sense of ease you can carry home with you.
Spend 4 inspiring days in this Journey of Creative Discovery immersed in pattern you will be creating. Set against the extraordinary colours, textures, architecture, gardens, and landscapes of the Alentejo, Monsaraz becomes our creative studio.
Mel Armstrong goal is very clear: by the time you end this retreat, you’ll have created a complete mini pattern collection, including a strong hero print and coordinating patterns, developed from first sketches through to polished artwork in Procreate. We’ll gather visual references from the village and surrounding landscape, explore the colour and pattern traditions of the region, and visit a traditional rug factory to see firsthand how pattern, rhythm, repetition, and colour work together in a commercial design context.
In this Restorative and Creative escape you will create a:
This is a unique opportunity to learn with Mel and finished a collection you can take into the next stage of your career.
Mastering how to live with home cooking in a balanced healthy way: what does it take?
In this retreat with Trine Hahnemann we will spend time understanding the holistic circle of taking care of ourselves with healthy eating, done by home cooking and the basics we need, understanding the seasons where we live. In beautiful surroundings, we will have workshops together around seasonal produce. What is season and how should we understand it in the times we live now?
We will visit producers, pick olives and spend time together emerging ourselves in understanding the world seen through food. And you can develop a healthier and conscious relationship with food; a good life is about good food and having time to cook and enjoying the eating.
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