What’s it like to spend a week at an art retreat
And all my favourite things about it!
Last week, I joined 14 strangers, at a remote farmhouse and converted outbuildings, in an isolated area of Devon. Surrounded by countryside, sheep, cattle and wildlife of all sorts from snakes and hornets to hares and visiting wild deer.
All doors to remain closed to prevent Gary the squirrel from coming in and ransacking the kitchen and signs for the smokers not to leave stubs on the ground as the cat was trying to give them up.
We meet over dinner, spread out across 2 huge dining tables, it had all the hallmarks of an episode from Midsummer Murders as we introduce ourselves to each other and get to know what we’re all hoping to get out of the upcoming week ( no murders occured, unless we count the daddy long legs in my bathroom, and even that was accidental - flew too close to the shower head…)
This was my second time here, my first opened my eyes to this wonderful world, I met several retirees who are spending their retirement flitting from one art retreat to the next, this had me scuttling off to look at my pension and calculating dates when I might be able to take up this lifestyle myself, sadly not just yet…
I’d seen the retreats run from the South of France, you know the ones; in a chateau with wine tasting, swimming pools, hot tubs and with fine dining tasting menus, but backtracked quickly once I saw the price tag!
For years I was stuck thinking art retreats were prohibitively expensive and just ‘not for me’.
Then I saw one of my favourite artists was running day workshops and yes a 5 day art retreat.
This was delivering everything I was looking for, a 5 day permission slip to just paint, all food prepped and cooked for you, no distractions (no wine tastings, hot tubs or anything else non-painting related) and not just demo’s of fabulous painting that I could only dream of emulating but real in-depth exercises designed to move your painting along.(Plus fabulous demos of paintings ..)
Let me introduce you to Tom Shepherd, you may already know/have heard of him, he has an online watercolour school, hosts one of my favourite podcasts with Peter Keegan ‘Ask an Artist’. He’s a brand ambassador for Daniel Smith paints, there’s a book Simply Paint Birds and the reason we’re all here is he runs various workshops and in-person courses around the UK and abroad.
First person I see on arrival is Natasha, who I met on the previous retreat and like me had loved it so much she’d decided to come back and do it all again. Besides the odd instagram comment since we first met, here we find ourselves greeting each other like best friends from school and almost jumping up and down in excitement. That, I think, is the power of a shared love of art and painting.
Chantal (also from the last retreat) couldn’t make it this year and in part this post is for her so she doesn’t feel like she’s missed out on too much and a special mention to Orinda who I know will be reading this from Canada with great interest! And thank you Orinda for being such a fabulous supporter of this newsletter
Needless to say Tom’s courses attract quite the international audience.
Days 1-3
There’s a deer outside my window, I freeze, curtain in hand, as I watch this gorgeous creature eat as much greenery as it can reach and I remember a similar scene many years ago, me in absolute awe with eyes like Bambi growing bigger by the minute whispering ’look’ and my Mum sounding exasperated, grumbling and telling me to shoo them away or they’ll eat all her good plants
I have been waking up like a kid on Christmas morning every day this week. Squeezing in a couple of hours ‘normal work’ early morning, answering emails, prepping for a workshop I’m running mid-month, finishing a commissioned painting.
When you run your own business there’s no switching off completely, but there’s nothing like the promise of a days painting to get you focussed and ticking off the essentials on your ToDo list!
We have breakfast as a group, then it’s into the studio for 9.30am and we start each day with exercises, from colour mixing, tonal studies, to paint consistencies and brush mark making. I’ll be honest, these first 3 days blurred into one as we worked our way through the exercises. Working outside when the weather permitted, picking subjects from the beautiful grounds and getting stuck in!
One of my favourite exercises from these few days was sat out in the gardens, in my comfy camping chair with large sketchbook on my lap staring into a colourful bed of flowers and just practising mixing the colours I was seeing. This isn’t something I really ever spend time doing, but has been one of my favourite takeaways from the week.
This year we have a very intense and determined group of painters, everyone has their own personal agenda. For some it’s their first art retreat, other’s have come specifically to be taught by Tom, some to practice and everyone was looking to improve and progress some aspect of their painting.
For me, it was part holiday, giving myself permission to paint just for myself with no agenda, and really progressing my use of light and shadow.
Because I illustrate so much for greeting cards and for licensing, my style is generally more flat/2D. But in my sketchbooks I’m drawn to shadows, cosy corners, interiors of cafes and restaurants, shadows on the street/buildings etc and this is what I wanted to improve on
Day 4
Road Trip!
A minibus is parked up outside and with our driver, Alan, who whisks us away for the day.
Our destination was Lynmouth, Linton & The Valley of the Rocks, I was pleased to spot quite a few dogs (I’d been missing mine!) and I sat by the harbour, in a cafe, took in views of the coastline, the gorge and the ice cream shop 😉. I did plenty of sketches and took a ton of photos
The conversations of families coming to the end of their holidays drifted in and out, many of them seemed quite extreme, perhaps the threats had been gentler at the beginning of the week…
”No, you can’t sit on the wall”
”No, it’s not allowed”
”It’s illegal!”
”Get off the wall or I’ll call the police”
“You’re so badly behaved you don’t deserve to be on holiday!”
”If you don’t stop doing that we’ll pack the car and go straight home!”
”Right that’s it, we’re leaving!” - it was 11am so I can only think they’d just arrived.
The whole day was visually overwhelming and we were spoilt for choice as to what to sketch but it was great to walk around and bump into/see all our fellow ‘retreaters’ sat immersed in sketching and painting
In the afternoon when we returned to the studio, we were all eager to get a painting from something we’d seen during the day finished, so a lot of us went straight from the studio to dinner!
Day 5
Last day and the painting had reached fever pitch. This group, in my limited experience of these things, seemed on fire. We were all pushing ourselves, encouraging each other, consoling when a mini meltdown appeared
“I love how you’ve painted that dog”
”It’s supposed to be a person bending down…”
and through all of this Tom consistently came round giving individual feedback, tips, different approaches. Basically, the exact right thing at the right time…
Hand reached out, ”No don’t look, I’ve overcooked it!” - was my most frequent saying of the week
I’ll leave you with my two favourite paintings of the week, Glen Lyn Gorge, the painting where I feel a lot of what I’d picked up during the week came together and this dog in front of a cottage which was inspired by our location but not painted from life in anyway, just from my imagination, which is one of the things I love to do most. It was great to do this with watercolours and away from the iPad!
What did I really think after the week?
Firstly, it was absolute heaven, I think every working artist should take a week out in their year to spend on a retreat doing something connected but perhaps slightly different to their day to day practice.
I came away re-energised and fired up with lots of new ideas and a completely unrealistic idea about painting for a few hours everyday!
I also think that anyone working or not, who loves to paint and sketch should treat themselves to one of these.
Key takeaways
I feel a lot more confident in my own ability to mix the colours I want, my paint consistency is ‘getting there’ and my ‘style’ is developing well, I know what I want to achieve next and if I can plan in some dedicated practice time, I hope to get closer before I come on the next retreat I’ve booked in 2026
Natasha and I agreed we’ve both improved since the last time we met and she introduced me to artsafari.com, which looks right up my street and I see a few more trips creeping into my schedule.
I learned more about pigment over one dinner conversation with the creator of Sketches and Scrubs, than I have over my entire career. Do check her out on You Tube and Instagram
I do believe there’s a video coming of her time at the art retreat, she’s very inspirational!
I rather fell in love with this Lavender colour from Daniel Smith
And I stocked up on my Pan Art brushes (I got sizes 8,12 & 16), having left my two of favourite brushes at home 🙄
We were at Westcott Barton, do check them out as they run a variety of courses over the year and I can highly recommend a stay here.
Lastly, I’m thinking of adding a monthly 2 hour painting session to my Open Studio Membership over Zoom to help me keep up with some painting practice.
There’s a poll below, my prior experience of running polls on this platform is that it kicks you out after you’ve answered! So I’m going to say my usual, thank you for spending your time here, let me know what you thought in the comments and here’s a load of my favourite snaps from the week - Jo x
PS A huge thank to Tom Shepherd and all the staff at Wescott Barton, I don’t think I’ve ever painted so much in a single week before!
YAY!!!!! You made SOOOOOOO many paintings!! How incredible but must have been 😊 thank you for making such a neat post! I really like the one of the door and shadow -- yours is way better than the photo ❤️ This retreat is the best !
This looks like heaven!