September 2025 at Villa Palagione!  This fully restored villa is a center for ART. We will be sketching at the villa as well as surrounding towns such as Volterra. For the past 10 years Eileen has been traveling and Urban Sketching. She finds this is the BEST way to capture your trip, relax and bring back an sketchbook full of the memories and stories of your Tuscany vacation.

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The workshop will start with the basics of watercolor, how to paint “wet in wet”, create gradients, mix colors and charge into the paint. We will discuss brushes, paper and different paints. We will then have a class in fountain pens. You will try out a variety of pens with different nibs, body sizes, weight and see which ones appeal to you.  (Eileen will suggest a few to purchase in her materials list.) Then we will move on to how to start setting up sketches, finding shapes, shadows and adding color. The group will visit the famous Tuscan hill town of Volterra as well as a beautiful neighboring hamlet to sketch. In the afternoons there will be time for you to sketch and practice, and perhaps enjoy the villa's gorgeous pool! Every day before dinner we will meet to have a cup of tea or a glass of wine and take a look at everyone's work for the day.

This one week sketching vacation takes place at an elegant villa, over 400 years old, painstakingly restored by an Italian-German team of artists who have created a wonderful international culture and study center.  Complete with a gorgeous swimming pool, Villa Palagione is nestled into the picturesque hills of Tuscany, only 6 kilometers from the art city of Volterra. We will pick you up at the airport in Pisa, or if you have your own car, parking is available at the villa.

Delicious farm-to-table dinners will be served at the Villa, as well as breakfast each day.  Lunch will either be a light lunch selected from the Villa's lunch menu, or a bistro lunch when we are offsite.  A Welcome gathering with drinks on Saturday night, two mid-week trattoria lunches in nearby villages, and a final public display of work in our studio, followed by the villa's Farewell dinner on Friday night, are also included.

Some of the time will be spent walking through Tuscan hills and Volterra's cobblestone streets.  Participants should be comfortable with carrying their gear on uneven surfaces.  You always have the option of course of remaining at the villa to sketch on site.

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Note from Eileen: ​I will be sending a supply list as we get closer to the trip. Be aware that there are no artists supplies close to the villa, so please make sure you have the supplies you need. Also I plan to do a group zoom call to answer any questions you have. I am looking forward to sketching with you.