Landscapes & Seascapes Painting Weekend

This is a two-day course

For our Seascapes and Landscapes Weekend you will spend two days using our Artists’ Retreat remotely exploring some of the beautiful scenery and views around Inishowen, Co. Donegal.

Each morning we will gather at the cottage retreat with teas, coffees and locally made scones with homemade jam, giving ourselves time to get introduced and set up for the day ahead.

Saturday morning will be based on getting everyone caught up and comfortable with colour ideas, composition layouts and plans for our paintings.

We are delighted to offer quality projected imagery for our painting studies.  You are invited to bring your own photographs and images for use.  You may email your photographs ahead of the weekend to sinead@artstaysdonegal.com

Lunch will be served around the table with vegan based soup and breads, a tour of the garden and preparations for our afternoon.

Seascapes

Together we will explore shape and composition. This can be difficult when painting seascapes and many artists revert to horizontal lines and brushwork which can bring the eye off the canvas resulting in confused focal points and less powerful captures.

The colours blue and green are incredibly flexible and varied depending on pigment base, saturation and intensity of your colour mixing. We will demystify how to achieve the gradual changes in your green and blue tones for sea and sky, in the studio before going onsite to practice what you have learned.

We will discover how we can communicate and translate distance and depth in painting using desaturation of colour and tips and hints about colour theory and mixing.

Landscapes

We will visit some of the most dramatic and lesser-known areas of Inishowen, Co. Donegal, from hillsides to Irish boglands, lakes and farms. Landscape painting is an art of its own.

Choosing a perspective and translating that perspective from life, in a unique and considered way, is crucial to the development of a successful en plein air painting. Often, we make everything so complicated for ourselves that we lose the essence of what we are trying to communicate through our painting.

This course is designed for all abilities and levels and considers composition, atmosphere, space and distance, values, colour temperature and much more. We will also look at colour graduation, with handy tips on painting skies, clouds and trees with both knife and brush.

We are delighted to offer projected imagery and the use of photographic references which you are invited to bring for your own use.

Those who choose stay at our Artists’ Retreat Accommodation are very welcome to access the art studio in the evenings, the outdoor seating area and gardens, and the fire bowl.

Our Cottage Gallery exhibits the artwork of resident artist Sinéad Smyth, including drawings and paintings both old and new. Works are available for sale on enquiry. You can view Sinéad’s latest work at www.sineadsmyth.com

Cost €160 for the weekend (accommodation not included).10am-4pm on Saturday and Sunday. 8 participants. Tea/coffee & scones provided. Light lunch provided.

Please bring your own materials. We can supply materials at a reasonable price, but you would need to let us know in advance.

A suggested Materials List will be emailed four weeks in advance of your course. Please let us know of any dietary requirements on booking.

Accommodation

We have reduced rate accommodation in two twin rooms (for up to four people) at our Artists' Retreat during our art course weekends. It's reduced because the living room/kitchen and toilet areas are used by other course participants during the day.

Our reduced Painting weekend 2025/26 rates are €50 per person sharing, €75 for two nights (Fri & Sat). Or €70 per person single room supplement, €100 for two nights (Fri & Sat). Please contact sinead@artstaysdonegal.com to book as booking is not available on the website for these weekends.

If our artists’ retreat accommodation is already booked, we can recommend other local places to stay nearby.

You can view our rooms here: artstaysdonegal.com.