Learn to Paint in France

Imagine a relaxing French holiday in the heart of rural France surrounded by green fields and chestnuts woods for mile upon mile. Imagine stepping back in time and enjoying the quiet lives of our forefathers, visiting the charming villages and quaint, ancient towns of Limousin, the Dordogne and the Charente. Imagine joining us for a painting holiday at Les Trois Chenes. You will learn to paint and draw in a beautiful landscape with either one-to-one tuition or in a small, convivial group. You will stay in our old, French farm house in a room with private bath or shower room, and we will serve you with good home cooked food and French wine. Our painting courses are tailored to your needs and your individual needs will be paramount. We will visit the most interesting places and we'll definately be combining business with pleasure!

For information or bookings do visit our web site Les Trois Chenes, Telephone us on +33 (0)5 55 48 29 84 or e-mail us on info@lestroischenes.com. We'd love to hear from you.

We are situated in the heart of rural France about half way between Limoges and Angouleme. Perigueux is about an hour and ten minutes to the south. If you look at a map we are ten minutes from the medieval town of Rochechouart. Videix is our hamlet with a Mairie, a listed church and a post box in addition to a sprinkling of houses. It evidently has seen better times as the Mairie used to house a school and several of the houses are rather magnificent.

All around us are the green rolling hills, oak and chestnut woods interspersed with meadows and fields of sweetcorn and sunflowers.

The Bed and Breakfast

At Les Trois Chenes B&B we have four en-suite bedrooms in the main farm house, and we can also use rooms in the gite, or holiday cottage, giving us a maximum of five rooms in all. There are two double bedrooms, one with a bath in addition to shower, a room with a double be and a single bed on a mezzanine and a room with three single beds.

The Gite

In the gite there are two double beds and a room with three single beds, so we can accommodate a variety of combinations. We have a spacious dining room and living room with TV, CD player and video. Wifi is available. (Note if the gite is booked by a group, on a self-catering basis, the rates will be calculated accordingly. Please contact us directly for details: info@lestroischenes.com)

Outside

There are gardens and lawns outside the bed and breakfast. The gite has a separate, fenced garden and the house and gite share a play area in the peach orchard with swings.

The painting courses normally run Saturday 5pm to Saturday 11.00am. We offer six days of tuition and the course begins on the day after arrival. A typical day starts at 10am with two hours of tuition before lunch at Les Trois Chenes, and three hours after lunch sketching in the towns, villages or countryside around. At 5pm we return to the house and have a little time to relax, or take a walk or have a swim in the nearby lake before dinner at 7.30pm.

Tutors and students will dine together in the evenings and there'll be plenty of time to discuss the day’s work over aperitifs before dinner.

Painting sessions take place outdoors on the farm or places of local interest, and a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art at Rochechouart Château is included. Day outings and visits are organised to some of the many attractions in Limousin, the Charente and the Dordogne. Two of the villages included in the list of the most beautiful villages in France, Brantôme and Mortemart, are within travelling distance.

Please remember, courses can be tailored to the needs of individual groups and we always remain flexible.

What is included?

All you need to do is to bring yourself. The basic materials are provided free of charge. A sketch book or a watercolour pad can be purchased from us. You might prefer to bring your own sketch book or pad, favourite water colour paper, paints or other materials. Make sure you have waterproofs and clothing that is sufficiently warm for the season.

What to bring

Make sure you bring comfortable, serviceable clothing and shoes. Limousin is very informal and even going out for dinner in the evening, most people dress very casually.

To make a reservation simply contact us by e-mail info@lestroischenes.com or by telephone +33(0)5 55 48 29 84. You can also write to Les Trois Chenes, Le Bourg, 87600 Videix, France. Visit our web site www.lestroischenes.com

The main tutor is me, Barbara, and I bought the property and renovated it with a view to setting up the painting holidays. I am quite a traditional artist and like to emphasise strong underlying skills such as good drawing and a sound understanding of colour, tone and techniques. I don't however, try to steer students into any particular style. I admire artists as disparate as Bellini and Jasper Johns, Tiepolo and Jackson Pollock. Here is a excerpt from my web site:

Barbara Walton studied Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh and taught art to adults at Cheltenham College of Art, and Chelsea College of Art. She also taught O and A level art and History of Art at Notting Hill and Ealing High School for three years. Barbara has exhibited regularly in London, Britain and abroad, and has several prizes, and scholarships.

Barbara uses landscape, still-life and portrait/figures as the starting point for her work. Working in a variety of media, she is interested in line, colour, pattern and textures.
In 1992 Barbara combined her design skills with a passion for plants and the landscape gaining an MA in Landscape Design from Manchester University, and subsequently working in both the private and public sectors.

Published work includes The Artist and Illustrator and Collins Complete Drawing Course and Complete painting Course.

My colleague and friend, Diana, runs more experimental and wide ranging courses over the summer period. She offers a taster course where you can dip into a range of subjects. Unfortunately 2010 she is going to Australia, but will be running courses in 2011. Here is a bit more information about Diana:

Diana Scarborough first qualified as an engineer and reached the top of her field in the Oil Industry before retraining as an artist. Diana is a practicing artist and an experienced tutor in Fine Art and Three Dimensional 3D Art and Design. She is currently teaching in Cambridge. Diana has taught adults and children as an artist in residence, working on community projects and she provides studio based workshops.

Diana has a BA (Fine Art) from the Royal Academy of Art in the Netherlands and a BSc (Electronic Engineering) from York University. She has exhibited in Europe and has sold her works internationally. Her work features in many private collections across the world, including Australia, Brazil, France, Great Britain, Israel, USA and the Netherlands. Her themes are the human condition and emotion in universal environments and the use of narrative deriving from materials and form. She uses a wide variety of media to create paintings, drawings, prints, installation, sculpture and public art. Her most recent work is small sculptures and mixed media with a strong drawing element. Her biography and art can be seen on her website

Non-participating partners sharing a room: Bed and Breakfast and evening meal 315 euros; and Bed and Breakfast only 175 euros.

All our tarifs are in euros, use X-rate, an easy to use site to find today's exchange rate.

There are so many things to see and do around Videix that I can only list a few here.

Within ten minutes of Videix you can go walking, fishing, cycling, boating, canöeing, windsurfing, swimming and riding. At Massignac there is an outdoor Adventure Park. There are several excellent restaurants and cafés. You can see the impressive Roman remains at Cassinomagus, Chassenon and visit the magnificent château at Rochechouart (now a Centre for Contemporary Art), and the Chateau of Rochebrune.

Within half an hour of Videix you can visit several other castles following the Route of Richard the Lion Heart including the fairytale castle at La Rochefaucauld. You can visit St Junien, famous for its glove-making, play golf at one of two golf courses, visit the historic frescoes of Les Salles-Lavauguyon, or buy Porcelain at La Vie En Rose factory shop.

Within an hour of Videix you can visit the historic towns of Angoulême and Limoges. You can see the Matyr town of Oradour-sur-Glane, a visitor centre and the ruines of a Limousin town preserved as a monument to the horrors of war. The wine caves of Saint Sornin make an interesting outing and Piegut market is a huge, colourful affair and takes place every Wednesday morning. Mortemart, listed as one of the most beautiful villages in France, is well worth seeing. There are gardens and farms to see, lots of wild life, exhibitions, fairs, communal dinners. Limousin is great for food. The list is too long for this article, but I've listed some other articles that cover things to do in this region below.

We are about 45 minutes from the airports of Limoges and Angouleme and less than an hour from Limoges and Angouleme railway stations with fast links to Paris and Bordeaux. Car hire from both airports and stations is easy. There are many low cost (or even no cost!!) flights from many airports in Britain to Limoges and Angouleme. At the time or writing (21st August 2010) Ryanair were offering return flights from Stanstead Airport to Limoges Saturday 2 October - Saturday 9th October for for 43.98 euros. Of course you have to add onto this for baggage and various spurious charges that bump up the price a little but 20 euros should cover that. If you travel Thursday 30 September and return Tuesday 12th October the price would be 29,98 euros.

You might find this article useful when booking with Ryanair Ryanair - Low Cost Carrier - What you need to know about cutting costs of budget flights