WatercoloursbyRachel heads to France

I am sitting in my studio trying to get stuff sorted after getting home yesterday from a week's teaching in France, phew, what an amazing experience that was!

I am not the most seasoned traveller so the trip by myself seemed pretty daunting , but having arrived safely the real work had to begin. I was staying in a little village called St Puy  (The town of Saint-Puy is located in the department of Gers of the french region Midi-Pyrénées)

Our home for the week was an old French farmhouse that had been lovingly restored by the owners Terry and Jill

This was the view from my room

Now I was here I realised I had 7 eager students all wanting to paint , and they were looking to me to show them !!! 

Maybe I should book the next flight home.....no had better stay and see what happened.

We started the next day and I couldn't have asked for a better group of painters, they were keen and really wanted to paint.

We began with blue tits 

 

I showed them step by step and they all rose to the challenge brilliantly, 

We had 2 full days in the studio painting , we went though each painting step by step Then they went off and worked at their own pace. We stopped for a well deserved leisurely lunch. We all chatted about our successes and disasters , we all had our share of each( including me!) 

I tried to show them ways to improve what they had done, and correct mistakes of things they did't like on the paper.

 

 

We all learnt something from each other.

Then a lovely relaxing dinner and a chance to unwind.

The weather wasn't kind at the beginning but it improved.

We visited a flower market, and did some wine tasting, and saw the most wonderful French villages.

 

 

Towards the end of the week we all attempted to paint an owl in flight, it was so interesting to listen to the group express their fear at adding so much paint to the background, but it was so rewarding when they did and then ended up with some stunning results 

 

 

We had really had a wonderful week, a good mixture of sightseeing and painting Teaching had been a tiring but very rewarding experience and I hope to return next year for more of the same .

Now I had better get that washing machine on !