2019 Palladian Odyssey Tours - filling up fast

September 21, 2018 | Leave your thoughts


I’m really excited to announce that we are offering Palladian Oydssey sketching tours again in 2019 and they are filling up fast!

Most of you who follow my blog, know that the Palladian Odyssey tours have become a big part of my year. In fact, they are my absolute favourite workshops to teach for a number of reasons.


Not only are the locations beautiful and varied (a relatively unknown region in Italy), the food incredible (including the stunning settings of the restaurants) but there is something special about sketching with the one group of people for a week.


We forge great friendships and really get to know each other’s work (strengths and weaknesses). But most excitingly of all, everyone goes through a significant development with their sketching. I can’t express in words how special it is to be a part of that.


The other feature of the Veneto tour which makes it unique, is the emphasis on learning about the history and architecture of the region.I think this really informs our sketching – we understand what we are looking at and have a stronger connection to our subject. We have a number of fascinating private guided tours to explain what makes this region so unique.

The Veneto contains the other half of the story of Venice – what happened when the Venetians needed to go back and build on the land. They started losing their trading dominance when the New World was discovered and had to leave the safety of the lagoon to survive. So if you love Venice, you will also love finding out about how the Venetians families lived in this part of Italy.


The Veneto is also the region where Palladio worked exclusively, creating new architectural forms to suit the Venetian lifestyle. Palladio is arguably the most significant architect in western architectural history (the only one to have a style named after him) and part of the reason for his fame is the fact that he drew! His books filled with drawings of ancient ruins and his own designs spread globally. Because of the importance of Palladio in the history of Classical Architecture, learning to sketch his buildings of the Veneto will give you the skills to sketch other Classical buildings anywhere in the world.


The teaching component of the Veneto tour is all about quick travel sketching, with an emphasis on recording complex buildings and townscapes within limited time frames. We use all the concepts from my online Foundations course – so in a way it’s an in-person extension to the course. Over the last two years I have spent a lot of time refining all the lessons so that I’m able to focus on the techniques which have helped people the most. I love teaching these lessons so much!



A lot of the people who were part of the Veneto tours in 2017 and 2018 have been asking Mike and me to put together a second tour as they were keen to do another one. So that is what we did in June (you can read more about it here). The result is the Umbrian Tour where we will be based in the gorgeous hilltop town of Montone – it’s small and not overrun with tourists.We have wonderful day trips planned to other towns and places in the region and I’m looking forward to food as well – I’m still dreaming about some of the meals we had there in June.


In this workshop I will focusing more on streetscapes/ townscapes (with some landscapes) and with a big emphasis on watercolour techniques. The beige stone towns of the region are perfect for learning the importance of creating a focus and playing with contrast to create interesting sketches. The workshop has been designed as a more advanced workshop to build on the techniques and concepts which we explored in the first Palladian Odyssey tour – so if you are a beginner the Veneto tour is recommended first.



I’m looking forward to all the tours in 2019 and it has been amazing to see how quickly they are filling up – lots of “Veneto Graduates” signing up for our new tour. We did an early release to people on the waiting list a few days ago and places are already limited! Wow! So this afternoon we just released another Veneto tour.


The dates are:

Umbria Tour 1: Mon 06 – Sat 11 May 2019 – already SOLD OUT. Contact Mike if you would like to be put on the waiting list in case there are any cancellations.

Umbria Tour 2: Mon 13- Sat 18 May 2019 – already SOLD OUT. Contact Mike if you would like to be put on the waiting list in case there are any cancellations.

Veneto Tour 1: Mon 27 May – Sat 1 June 2019 – already SOLD OUT. Contact Mike if you would like to be put on the waiting list in case there are any cancellations.

Veneto Tour 2: Mon 3 – Sat 8 June 2019 – places available. Click here to book.

 



A huge thanks to Mike, our amazing tour director, for all the work involved in planning these tours. If you have any questions please contact him here.


Finally, here are a few articles with some more information about the Palladian Odyssey Veneto tour:

Summary of 2018 Veneto Tour 1

Summary of 2018 Veneto Tour 2

What makes Palladian Odyssey tours special?

Travel sketchbooking on the Palladian Odyssey Tours

Palladio and Perspective Sketching

Some of my sketches from my first visit to the Veneto


 

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