From the 17-23 May I was lucky enough to be attending Artfinder’s residency in Saint Nicolas du Pélem, France. Generous Artfinder customer, Patrick, opened the doors to his beautiful country house so that artists could unwind, make new friends and create some art.

Accompanied by Artfinder’s Kate and Poppy, coming from Russia, Germany, France, UK, Poland and USA, artists Monica Green, Daria Galinski, Jane Kell, Heather Hunt, Gordon Hunt, Nancy Marisa Arlt, Juliette Belmonte and Joanna Sokolowska and I spent the time creating plein air paintings, portraits, sketches, etchings on wood and preliminary work for mixed media pieces.

The residency was a fantastic get-away and was filled with laughter, late-night chats about creative techniques and inspiration, walks around the beautiful gardens and, of course, plenty of wine and cheese. It went by all too quickly.

Another Saturday, another painting workshop, this hosted by Paul Banning. We concentrated on composition, an area of weakness for me, and something I wanted to improve. Paul took the group through some important decision making culminating in a well-composed painting. I was pleased with the result, and managed to sell it, covering the cost of the workshop. Nice.