La Clusaz painting weekends

Our relaxing informal watercolour weekends are perfect for individuals or groups who would like to learn watercolour painting or who would like to improve their techniques, as well as learn new ones.

One of the most important aspects of watercolour painting is colour mixing. Our courses offer tuition in colour appreciation, watercolour techniques, tone and hue and much more. They also involve painting outside - en plein air - to capture the true beauty of the scenery!

All our artists Bee Morrison, Diane King, Joanne Boon Thomas and Jackie Devereux are very experienced, successful tutors with an individual painting style and teaching method. They all bring something special to their courses, whilst encouraging and nuturing their student in a fun, friendly, easy going atmosphere.

Bee Morrison is an international artist, art holiday organiser, author, demonstrator and watercolour tutor. She holds an Honours degree in ART, fully qualified teaching certificate and has over 30 years of teaching experience. She is artist in residence at Bridlington, is the author of 2 books in print, and has appeared three times on national television. Bee also has her watercolour portrait of Her Majesty the Queen in the Royal Collection 

Diane was born in Glasgow in 1954, brought up in the north east of England, and has spent nearly all her adult life in south Manchester. She is a self-taught colourist, fascinated by how we see and feel colour.
She works mainly in watercolour, and occasionally mixed media and has recently threaded her experiences of visiting Africa, Greece, and Scotland into her work. She enjoys the flexibilty of watercolour from the flowing wet-in-wet painting to using undiluted paint to create foreground detail.

"The wonderful unpredictability of water colour means that every picture moves in unexpected and exciting ways, each picture offering new problem solving opportunities and great fun. I feel the inspiration for my work is somewhere between capturing the moment and the recording the journey and enjoying both! Colour has always excited me. Moods emotions, feelings are conjured and reflected in colour and tones. Colour makes my heart race.Colour stops me in my tracks, always makes me want to look again and share. It may be pink and orange streaks across an urban sky, or millions of green in an old dry stone wall! 

Joanne lives in the North West of Lancashire a self-taught artist specialising in Watercolour, an experienced qualified adult education tutor running many popular watercolour workshops throughout the North West area. Joanne is a professional artist with many years of teaching experience. Joanne demonstrates Watercolour techniques for various Art Societies as well as tutoring painting holidays in the UK and abroad, and is a regular contributor to The Leisure Painter Magazine.
I have always loved to paint, draw, and create. I feel the need to paint every day. I was encouraged at an early age by a teacher who recognised my love of drawing and since that time creativity has always played an important role through out my life. For me the qualities I am looking for in a great piece of work are, pleasing composition, harmonious colour, interesting textures and a quality of light. I am a great believer in painting 'Plein air' I love nothing better than to be on site collecting ideas and reference that I can use to create later paintings from. I find watercolour ideal for capturing the transparent effects of light and mood, it can be exciting yet unpredictable. This all adds to the excitement, the challenge I suppose is part of the attraction. 

Jackie's first love is pure watercolour, but she is equally at home with pen and ink as well as pastels and fine art printmaking. She often also incorporates an element of calligraphic work into a collage with fine hand embossing, which she has pioneered. All of these disciplines have evolved over a number of years during which time she has shared her knowledge and experience by running workshops and courses, painting holidays.Her subject range is wide, from still-life to people in places, to architecture and landscapes.

Jackie is a regular contributor to the specialist art magazine - 'The Artist' and has also written for "Leisure Painter". She appears with several other contemporary artists in "Watercolour Innovations" published by Harper Collins in April 2005.

Jackie's work is widely held by private collectors and has also been purchased by corporations Esso, Allen and Overy, BP Sanders & Company Ltd, BRL Hardy Wines and Oriel House Hotel. Her most recent exhibitions have been held atThe Menier Gallery, Jane Powell Gallery and Galerie le`31.