The Tuscany Plein-Air Intensive is a week-long immersion in landscape painting with British artist Julian Merrow-Smith of Postcard from Provence, and American painter Julia Ingersoll, a longtime former resident of Tuscany.

 

 

The week is all about painting – doing, talking, living, and breathing it together– immersed in the sublime landscape and light of Tuscany. Enjoy a rich experience of living the painter’s life in legendary Italy – a birthplace of open-air painting.

 

 

You will be embraced into the best of authentic Tuscan culture and welcomed like family on a marvelous, rustic-chic farm-estate. The whole property and excellent staff is reserved exclusively for us. Not to mention gourmet, farm-to-table cooking at every meal, excellent regional wines, and wonderful Italian hosts taking care of every little thing with grace, passion, and joy – Viva!

 

 

Set deep in the magnificent Val d’Orcia countryside with mesmerizing views in every direction, the historic property is a painter’s paradise. The landscape here in its entirety is recognized by UNESCO as a world-heritage monument. The hand of man has worked in harmony with nature for millennia, creating a visual masterpiece, which we can recognize as nearly unchanged from the scenes forming the backdrops of Italian Renaissance painting. The nearby town, Pienza, is known as “the Jewel of the Renaissance.” Sublime vistas, old stone architecture, gardens, olive groves, lovely people, pool, animals, and vast skies await, all bathed in the perennial, magical light of Italy.

 

 

The charming atmosphere and comfortable beauty of podere make it an ideal setting to relax and draw on your creative energy.

You will do a lot of painting outdoors, alongside Julian and Julia. The small size of the group will allow ample individual attention. Your fitness levels should allow you to spend between two and four hours a session painting outside in variable weather. The workshop is best suited to painters with some experience – those who wish to broaden their scope and learn by example, or to experience the rigors of plein-air painting for the first time.

 

 

The atmosphere of the workshop is warm, supportive, constructive and relaxed. You are welcome to work as hard as you like, or to take time off when you desire.

 

 

You will do a lot of painting outdoors, alongside Julian and Julia. The small size of the group will allow ample individual attention. Your fitness levels should allow you to spend between two and four hours a session painting outside in variable weather. The workshop is best suited to painters with some experience – those who wish to broaden their scope and learn by example, or to experience the rigors of plein-air painting for the first time.

The atmosphere of the workshop is warm, supportive, constructive and relaxed. You are welcome to work as hard as you like, or to take time off when you desire.