ArtSites Updates

Orvieto Piazza by Jenny Reid

We know you LOVE art!

And, many of you also LOVE to travel - either to see art or to be inspired by new landscapes and surroundings! :-)

Well, here's a great article that gives you several valuable tips on combining both!

Enjoy!

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You certainly deserve to go on a painting trip, and get away from your usual routines.

A change of scenery can be very stimulating, and if you go in a group, you will benefit from their energy. In addition, you will get away from the distractions of home (laundry, grocery shopping, etc.).

Where to go is a wide open question, as there are wonderful places at home and worldwide, but the acme for painters is widely acknowledged to be Italy or Provence.

You can go at any time, but you will be painting out of doors (or else why leave your studio), so might want to avoid July and August unless you really like the heat.

May/June and September are good times, the first for the wild flowers and spring greenery and the second for the golden tones of late summer and early fall, not to mention the food festivals!

A painting trip can be arranged in many ways.

You have only to open an art magazine, or check online to find a multitude of organized trips. If you join one of these, all arrangements will be made for you, but the group may be larger than you like, and you may not feel that you want to be with an instructor.

In this case, persuade a reliable friend to do the organizing, or else do it yourself. It is not difficult, just requiring some care and attention to details.

We have organized 8 or 9 trips with groups of friends.

Based on our experiences, here are the details and tips we'd like to share with you about organizing a painting trip.

Briefly, we have put these trips together like this:

• Choose somebody to be the "Organizer in Chief".
  This person will take input from group members, but should bear in mind that democracy can be overrated – it is easy to paralyze the whole process when trying to accommodate a host of divergent views.
• Decide how many people will be in your group.
  We have generally fixed the group size at eight, since this is the greatest number that can be accommodated comfortably in the largest vehicle that a rational person would care to drive in desirable painting areas. Also, experience has shown that eight is a good number to have round a table at communal meals.
• Decide where and when you want to go, and for how long.
  Our recommendation is that you consider two weeks to be the minimum length for a painting trip. In one week, you barely have time to wind down from getting ready and travelling before it is time to return home.
• Work out your budget.
  This will be determined largely by your expectations for food and lodging. As a guide, our costs have typically been in the range of $2,500 – 2,700 in Tuscany and other parts of Italy. This does not include airfare to Italy, but does include almost everything else, specifically all food and drinks, lodging and local transport.
• Set up a communal “purse”, to be held by a chosen member of the group.
  Funds from the purse will be used for all group expenditures, which avoids forcing individual members to scrabble for correct change when eating out or buying supplies. If the budget has been carefully estimated, the purse should end up with a small surplus, to be returned to group members.
• Choose a place to stay, either a hotel or a rented villa, as you prefer.
  In a hotel, you will get your beds made for you and have access to a dining room. However, costs can be reduced significantly if you rent a villa, and you will have the advantage of enjoying a space all to yourselves.
• Plan to have your main meal at a restaurant or catered each day, either at midday or in the evening.
  To have a successful and enjoyable painting holiday you should avoid saddling anybody with the responsibility of thinking up, shopping for and preparing meals.
• Other meals, i.e., breakfast and lunch or supper, can be on a “some assembly required” basis, using ingredients from the nearest grocery or supermarket.
  It is a good idea to involve the whole group in such shopping trips, because they can provide a unique cultural experience, and also so that nobody can complain that their culinary preferences were ignored.

A couple of points deserve expansion.

The first being, is it actually necessary to drive anywhere? The answer is, of course, no. Public transport is generally very user friendly in Europe and a number of fantastic painting sites can be reached by bus or by train. However, there is no doubt that you lose a lot of flexibility if you stick to public transport, besides which, you will have to keep a very close eye on the time and the bus timetables if you want to avoid any inadvertent overnight stays.

It is also worth elaborating a little on the question of choosing your place to stay. The very best is to go somewhere that you know personally and like. Failing that, take a recommendation from a friend whose taste you know, and whose judgement you trust.

If neither option is available to you, you can type “Rent Villa Tuscany” (for example) into a web search engine, and be prepared to be totally overwhelmed by the number and range of responses! Fortunately, there is one further option, which is to consult a rental agency which has a local representative, so that you have the option of person to person communication. Ideally, this representative should have personal, direct knowledge of the accommodation.

In summary, we believe that all artists can benefit from going away on painting trips.

We do NOT organize such trips, but are more than happy to share our experience to help you plan your own.

Where we CAN help more directly is in helping you choose and rent a villa in Tuscany and surrounding regions of Italy, or in Provence, because we represent Invitation to Tuscany and its associated companies, Invitation to the Italian Lakes and Invitation to Provence. Invitation to Tuscany is a company based in England, with 30 years experience in villa rentals and a catalogue of some 150 villas from which to choose, covering a range to suit all budgets and group sizes.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact us - Jenny & Neville Reid!