The Poetry of Colour - Perception & Expression
with Charlotte Sorapure
🗓️ September 5th to 11th 2026
🎨 Painting
Full Board Accommodation: 1485€ to 2480€ for 6 nights based on room choice & single or shared occupancy.
Tutor's Fee: 500€
Partners & family may join the trip as non-participating guests without the teaching fee.
Course Description
Colour is often deemed to be one of the most difficult, mysterious and subjective elements to grasp in painting.
This course will help to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions - providing the student with a deeper understanding of colour organisation and its immediate, practical application, whilst also advancing its long term potential as a vehicle for creative expression.
Although we will be working directly from observation, the aim of the course is not towards the mechanisation of colour organisation but rather to look to the benefits it may hold for helping an intuitive student reach out with insight and feeling, towards the imponderables of this subject; discovering its expressive force, with the enigma of their own feelings as a principal guide.
“ Drawing and colour are at the heart of everything, being the best means of imaginatively exploring the nature of visual ideas with their underlying patterns and structures. I strive for strong compositional impact, yet aim to imbue the paintings with subtlety, mystery and stillness. Such overriding concerns link the diverse range of subject matter in the work, from observed still lives, portraits and landscapes to the more imaginary themes and ideas.”
Brief Outline
Saturday
16:00 - Check in & Estate Tour
18:00 - Welcome aperitivo followed by dinner
Sunday
08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast
10:00 - 13:00 - We begin with some directly applicable colour theory, to establish a functional vocabulary for all, encourage a critical, analytical approach and allow participants to exploit the reciprocal nature of colour principles and artistic practice. We will also question outdated and inaccurate notions still in use. It will be necessary to make notes for future reference.
13:00 - 14:00 - Farm to table lunch at Rignana
14:30 - 16:30 - Through the vehicle of a carefully colour orchestrated Still Life arrangement, we will begin to explore the importance of colour themes and colour composition as active elements in a work - establish best practice for mixing colour - augment understanding of hue, tone and chroma.
18:30 - Aperitivo followed by dinner
Monday
08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast
10:00 - 13:00 - Continuation of Still Life painting - deepening awareness and accuracy of colour relationships and interactions through comparative assessment, whilst also encouraging an interpretive effort on the part of the individual.
13:00 - 14:00 - Farm to table lunch at Rignana
14:30 - 16:30 - Continuation of Still Life painting to a resolution.
18:30 - Aperitivo followed by dinner
Tuesday
08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast
10:00 - 13:00 - Begin a second painting from life with a different colour ‘theme’. We will focus on use of materials, application of paint and enabling better manipulation of colour, helping resolve any previous uncertainties about its use.
13:00 - 14:00 - Farm to table lunch at Rignana
14:30 - 16:30 - Continuation of second painting. As well as the science, we will also be touching upon the symbolic, psychological and emotional use of colour throughout art history… especially in anticipation of the trip to Florence.
18:30 - Aperitivo followed by dinner
Wednesday
08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast
FREE BREAK DAY. Optional trip to Florence.
Thursday
08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast
10:00 - 13:00 - The single greatest factor in establishing an identity, mood, theme or atmosphere of a painting, is through colour. Self motivated subject matter. Participants are free to take inspiration from the surrounding landscape on the Rignana Estate. With a deeper understanding of the principles and their application, the emphasis will be on colour composition, colour orchestration, colour accents, perceived and local colour, optical mixing, simultaneous contrast and more. I will be on hand to advise, assist and instil confidence.
13:00 - 14:00 - Farm to table lunch at Rignana
14:30 - 16:30 - A final informal group appraisal of what has been meaningfully learned and manifested throughout the week - evaluating each others different tactics, approaches, initiatives and achievements.
18:30 - Aperitivo followed by dinner
Friday
08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast
10:00 -Check out
About Charlotte Sorapure
Trained at The Royal Academy of Arts in London, Charlotte is a figurative painter who has exhibited widely in London, Oxfordshire, and the USA.
Commissions include a portrait of the war photographer, Don McCullin for The Holburne Museum’s collectionin Bath.
She is an elected member of The Royal Society of Portrait Painters and also the historic New English Art Club.
Accommodation & Inclusions
Bedroom with shared bathroom:
Single occupancy: €2,295
Double occupancy: €3,295
Bedroom with ensuite:
Single occupancy: €2,590
Double occupancy: €3,590
Superior bedroom with ensuite:
Single occupancy: €2,890
Double occupancy: €3,890
What's included
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7 nights accommodation
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Daily breakfast 5 lunches and 6 dinners with wine
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Pizza making experience
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Daily Aperitivo
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A2 size drawing boards
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Painting Easel
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Paper
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Transfers
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Infinity pool
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Tennis court
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Wifi
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Laundry facilities
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VAT tax
Materials to bring
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A Note Book
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2 or 3 small to medium size Palette Knives for mixing and painting
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Brushes - Selection/mix of short flat brushes and square filbert brushes - sizes 2, 4, 6, 8, 10
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Paints - Titanium White, Black, Cadmium Yellow (or similar), Lemon Yellow, Cadmium red (or similar), Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Viridian Green, Emerald Green. Only if you already have them, some earth pigments i.e., Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Indian Red or Light Red.
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Large Ruler
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Pencils 2-4B, eraser and Charcoal Pencil
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2 small containers with lids
What's not included
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Drawing materials
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Wine Tours
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Massage
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City tax (€2.50 per person per day to be paid in cash on arrival)
