The Course
This inspirational course will get you truly immersed in the spirit of Tuscany. Absorb the evocative Sienese colours and explore an expressive and vibrant approach to capturing landscape and place in your painting.
There will be tutored studio time to develop personal ideas using drawing, collage and acrylics to experiment and explore. Liz will show you techniques to loosen up your paintings and develop a personal response to the stunning landscape and townscape surrounding the art centre.
The course is led by artist tutor Liz Hough who has spent many years exploring and responding to the region through her own painting. The immersive creative experience will be a unique opportunity to soak up the Tuscan creative environment past and present and develop your own unique response.
Students will use mixed media involving drawing, collage and painting using acrylics. The focus will be on creating expressive and vibrant work that captures the essence of the local landscape. Altogether there will be six days of tuition included in the fee. Other days students can choose to work self directed in the huge studio or have time off to enjoy the surrounding area.
Liz Hough
Taking inspiration from Cornwall’s charismatic scenery, Liz’s work is based on the landscape. Her abstract paintings feature in a continual flow of mixed and solo exhibitions throughout the UK and she has received several commissions, most recently in 2004, from St Michael’s Chapel, Cordigliano, Italy. Liz received her BA Honours in Fine Art at Manchester Polytechnic before going on to receive a Post-Graduate Diploma in Painting at the Royal Academy Schools. She has also studied at Academia di Belle Arti, Perugia, in Italy. A number of awards have acknowledged her paintings, including: the Vincent Harris Mural Decoration Prize in 1991, the Daler-Rowney Award for Artist under 30 in 1990, the Creswick Prize for Landscape Painting in Oils in 1990, and the Landseer Scholarship Prize for Compositional Studies in Oils in 1990. She sells her paintings in the Oliver Contemporary Gallery in London. See Liz's work on Insagram
Testimonials for Liz Hough
Exceeded expectations - largely due to tutor. Professional and responsible attention.Very well prepared. Very enthusiastic. Sensitive critiques. Very friendly. Sue Glennie Smith
It exceeded my expectations: I learnt how to sketch by looking for essential shapes, lines; I grasped the merits of collage and layering and of varying scale and line. Wendy Kiff
Exceeded expectations. Really enjoyed course and got a lot from it. Learnt so much and lots of totally new ways of seeing things. Great! David B
Liz was calm and thoughtful, and has left me with lots to think about. Tamsyn Williams
Very expanding. Philip Shaddick
Had the best painting holiday I've ever done, and I've done a few! Loved Liz - she's a gentle inspiring and amazing tutor. She's intuitive and incredibly able. Do you get the idea I love her? On top of this she's a very caring. She got up at 6 to make sure I got my taxi! That's dedication. Mind you on the last night I did have rather a lot of apperros and mimosas, think that's what they called them, my memory of the evening's a touch vague. It was a good evening though - I think!
Re anything you could do better. All I can think of is could you move the gelateria next door to the art centre? Apart from that there's just a couple of really minor things like a towel rail or some hooks to hold the towels in Room 1.
I absolutely love Casole d'Elsa and the centro is charming in a sort of Heath Robinson homely way. I love all the books, the helpers, the views and as for the studio - the views, the views... I just don't have the words. It's such an inspirational space.
Then there's the food - Loredana - I've said her name in every variation possible. LD is an absolute star. Despite the heat in the kitchen she just smiled her beautiful smile all the way through.
Caro also just kept smiling and gave an aura of calm regardless of what was happening. I just felt she would have coped with absolutely anything. Then of course there's all the art to look at including Caro's work which I love. I honestly can't think of anything else I could have wanted that wasn't either there or on offer. If I think of anything I'll let you know.
Ah, 1 thing has just occurred to me. If the course runs again can I come again? Pretty please! L.T. again!
I just had such a good time. I did wonder if 11 nights away would be too much but what with the trip to Siena and then us all clubbing together to go to St Gimignano it was perfect. Days off and days painting - what more could I have asked for. Wonderful, and of course Casole d'Elsa is just brilliant. Big enough to have a choice of places to eat and drink. There's architecture, flowers, countryside in spades, a tutor who was a dream.
Do tell Loredana I just loved her cooking. I got the feeling it was the sort of food that could be served to family rather than the sort of thing you'd get in a hotel. It was fresh, tasty and just wonderful. Her lemon dessert is definitely heaven in a dish as far as I'm concerned. Liz Tredrea UK
I had an absolutely wonderful time on the holiday. Great Michelin-star food, fantastic room (thanks for giving me Duccio), beautiful setting and the centro was so characterful and unique. The staff were friendly and joined in with us so that was nice.It was the perfect time for me to go and I really needed something like this. My very good friend died in between booking the holiday and leaving for it, and this proved just the tonic I needed. Lots of laughs, great group of women and Liz's teaching was superb and challenging. Thank you!! S.H. USA