Creative Art Course

Los Gázquez art classes are designed to be pragmatic and direct with an emphasis on guests getting quick results that will encourage them to continue well after their experience with us.

Your tutor Simon is a Fine Art graduate from Manchester University and postgraduate from the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He is well versed in all mediums and is an experienced teacher. Simon has developed an instruction system for guests at Los Gázquez that will allow them to maximize their learning experience in a minimal amount of time in this extraordinary landscape.

By following his ‘ten rules for moderate success’ and being aware of his ‘ten rules of opposition’, Simon teaches you the ‘pit falls’ and ‘peaks’ in a congenial and attentive atmosphere. He has also developed a simple ‘approach system’ with your painting that will allow you to avoid what you might consider to be a disaster on day one.

All abilities and all mediums are welcome.

Itinerary

Day 1:

• Arrive at Los Gázquez. Once you are accommodated and rested Simon will give you an introductory talk to the week over a glass of cava and some olives.
• That evening you will have a delicious meal cooked by Simon’s wife Donna. She is also an artist being a food and travel illustrator.

Day 2:

• After breakfast we make for the studio. The first part of the day Simon explains his ‘ten rules for moderate success’ with your painting.
• We also start out with simple colour theory and discuss colour recipes that will make your work lifelike.
• After lunch Simon will discuss his ‘ten rules of opposition’. These are clear and pragmatic rules in ‘not what to do’ if you want to get results. This part of the day is light hearted and entertaining and usually slips into early evening drinks before supper.

Day 3:

• Around Los Gázquez we look for colour and how to mix that colour on your palette. We build an ‘aide memoir’ of these colours and the recipe you used to mix those colours so that at any time you can refer to your records and remember how to repeat colours.
• After lunch we move directly onto composition, light and shadow.

Day 4:

• Landscape painting.
• Simon will teach you his ‘approach strategy’ to painting.
• TThis is your first full day of painting a subject and we confidently expect you to get results you can be proud with.
• Early evening seminar with other guests to discuss your understanding and interpretation of the teaching you have received in the two previous days.

Day 5:

• A free day painting.
• You are not unsupported but you are left more to your own devices to concentrate on building on what you have learned so far.
• Early evening, again we have a seminar to discuss the day’s achievements or failings. Either way it’s a learning process.

Day 6:

• Defining a direction.
• We try to identify your painterly direction and how you can build on your experience at Los Gázquez and most importantly keep painting!
• Late afternoon to early evening we have a seminar once again to discuss the days painting before a final delicious supper.

Day 7:

• After breakfast guests make their way home.