Our retreat begins on Friday 17th with a delicious lunch available to enjoy from midday in the lounge at the Vean. 

Tucked away in the peaceful, wooded Porthluney Valley, The Vean is a beautifully restored Georgian country house offering breathtaking views over the historic Caerhays Castle Gardens. 

With over 50 years collective teaching experience, your hosts, Sam & Sam will guide you through a rich and rewarding artistic journey over the 3 day retreat.

From en plein air painting & drawing in the gardens to light painting under the stars, each workshop is thoughtfully designed to awaken your creativity and deepen your connection to the landscape. 

As guests arrive and settle in, our group will have an opportunity to meet each other over a delicious homemade, local & seasonal lunch before the workshop sessions start - beginning at 2pm.

Friday

Our first workshop begins in the afternoon, with an introduction to the weekend, and an exploration of our enchanting home for the weekend - Caerhays estate offers a magical blend of natural beauty, horticultural excellence, and history providing a unique setting for our retreat - a serene Cornish coastal experience. 

We’ll spend the afternoon exploring the beautiful Caerhays Estate looking for inspiration, exploring a range of possibilities and taking part in practical activity creating new works through making, drawing, painting and print. 

After a chance to relax, we’ll eat together back at the Vean, and then enjoy a workshop in the Grand Dining Room where guests will be introduced to bookmaking, and a range of approaches to making artists’ books. There’ll be the opportunity to make a range of different sketchbooks for our own use through the rest of the weekend. 

Saturday

(Optional) On Saturday, there is a morning yoga session from 7.45 - 8.45am.

From 9.30am, following a delicious breakfast at the Vean, we’ll start our first full day with a morning drawing workshop - using our incredible setting to inspire working at scale, with a range of materials and tools. In the afternoon, we’ll be printmaking using gelli plates, texture and exploring how it is possible to communicate a sense of place through imagery. We’ll enjoy a delicious home cooked meal together at the Vean, and then we’ll make our way out to the The Coastguard’s Lookout – a unique, historic listed clifftop building with sweeping sea views for our light painting evening workshop session which will take place under the night sky. The workshop will finish at 9.45pm. 

Sunday

(Optional): On Sunday morning, there is an (optional) yoga session from 8.00 - 9.00am. 

From 9.45am, we’ll work on individual pieces which guests will be invited to share with the group & discuss over a leisurely, seasonal lunch from 2pm. 

There’ll be time for reflection and we’ll make our fond farewells before the retreat closes at 3pm, to enable guests to travel home.