13-20 September 2025
Limited places available

Book your spot now to experience the most peaceful and colorful Provence.
Applications close as soon as the group is complete.

"Under the blue sky, the patches of orange, yellow and red flowers shine brightly, and in the clear air there is something more cheerful and sweet than in the north."

Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

The Context

Ocres du Luberon is a residential oil painting course set in the heart of Provence, where colour becomes a heightened sensory experience.

Not everyone knows that the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome was founded by the French in the 17th century with the aim of encouraging artists to share, rather than conceal, their exceptional knowledge of colour.

One of the Academy's earliest directors spoke of promoting a "sensual use of colour", believing that the quality of a painting lay in the richness, beauty, and intensity of its hues. Spending a week in the Luberon - a region renowned for producing outstanding pigments for art suppliers in Paris, Buenos Aires and Tokyo - is a remarkable opportunity to study the true substance of painting.

Here, where colour is born -  among old 19th-century pigment factories and dusty ochre trails - we will set up our easels and work immersed in the landscape.

The Course

This is a full and structured oil painting course, with 36 hours of teaching covering every stage of creating a painting, from canvas preparation to the final coat of varnish.

To make the experience more enriching, we will also:

• Walk through the ochre canyons and follow the famous Ochre Trail
• Visit a historic yellow ochre mine and a 19th-century pastel workshop
• Enjoy a picnic in a dye plant garden
• Explore authentic Provençal villages: Gordes, Roussillon, Apt, Lacoste, and the Abbey of Sénanque
• Visit the Château de Sade
• And finally, under the same stars that inspired Van Gogh, we will host a private astronomy session with a local expert

Each participant will complete a painting and gain a deeper understanding of oil techniques, natural pigments, and the art of seeing.