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The Seduction of Portrait Painting

with Susanne du Toit

🗓️ May 6th to 12th 2027

🎨 Oil Paint

Language: English

Full Board Accommodation for 6 nights: starting from €1,980 for Single Occupancy

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Susanne's Tuition Fee: €500

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Partners & family may join the trip as non-participating guests without the teaching fee.

Course Description

A five-day immersive portrait painting retreat with BP Portrait Award winner Susanne du Toit, exploring the figure, colour, composition and the energy of the painted image.

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Join us for an inspiring week of drawing and painting from the model, designed to build confidence in painting the full figure and develop your studies into a compelling, resolved painting.

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Throughout the week we will explore how drawing can help us truly see and understand the figure, how colour can be used creatively, and how thoughtful decisions about shape, value and composition can transform a painting.

The emphasis is on developing your own visual language rather than simply following a formula — learning to paint with greater confidence, sensitivity and freedom.

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Throughout the retreat, we’ll look at:

  • Drawing as a way of seeing and understanding the figure

  • Developing confidence with the full figure

  • Gesture, proportion and visual memory

  • Expressive and observational drawing

  • Shape and value

  • Using colour creatively

  • Developing your own colour palette

  • Composition and choosing the right format

  • Moving from drawing into painting

  • Maintaining energy and spontaneity

  • Developing likeness without losing expression

  • Seeing and responding to subtle changes in perceptual colour

  • Knowing what to refine — and what to leave alone

  • Bringing a painting to a confident and coherent conclusion

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Each day will begin with relevant examples and artistic influences, alongside useful notes and guidance to support your development.

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​Course Outline​

Thursday 6th May

16:00 - Check in & Estate Tour

18:00 - Welcome aperitivo followed by dinner

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Friday 7th May - Day One

08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast

10:00 - 13:00 - Morning session: with model, drawing the pose we will  eventually be painting this week in 4 different media - charcoal, dipping pen and ink, brush and ink, graphite

13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch at Rignana

14:30 - 16:30 -  Afternoon session: continuing from Morning session

18:30 - Aperitivo followed by dinner

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Saturday 8th May -Day Two

08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast

10:00 - 13:00 - Morning session: Transfer drawing with most energy to canvas/paint support; Consider composition carefully; cover canvas with thin diluted colours

13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch at Rignana

14:30 - 16:30 -  Afternoon session: continuing from Morning session

18:30 - Dinner at Local Restaurant

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Sunday 9th May - Day Three

08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast

10:00 - 13:00 - Morning session: start your painting

13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch at Rignana

14:30 - 16:30 - Afternoon session: continuing from Morning session

18:30 - Aperitivo followed by dinner

 

Monday 10th May - Day Four

08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast

10:00 - 13:00 - Morning session: Look for detail and refine perceptual colour changes

13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch at Rignana

14:30 - 16:30 -  Afternoon session: continuing from Morning session

18:30 - Aperitivo followed by dinner

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Tuesday 11th May - Day Five

08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast

10:00 - 13:00 - Morning session: Bring coherence and completion to your painting

13:00 - 14:00 - Lunch at Rignana

14:30 - 16:30 -  Afternoon session: Final session

18:30 - Aperitivo followed by dinner

 

Wednesday 12th May

08:30 - 9:30 - Italian breakfast

10:00 -Check out 

About Susanne

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For multi-award winning artist Susanne du Toit, her art has become an intensely personal experience over the years. For her, art is a way of placing herself in relation to her surroundings, to other people, and to her past. It offers a unique dialogue with oneself and a way of working things out.

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She works across a variety of media, including ceramics, photography, watercolour, etching, and mixed media within sketchbooks, but principally oil painting. Painting offers great and more immediate access to colour, the opportunity to work on a larger scale, and the simple enjoyment of pushing paint around.

Susanne has always seen the people around her as subjects for art, either through the eyes of her favourite artists or as figures within her own work. She often paints and draws her family — firstly because they are the models readily available to her, but also because they are people with whom she shares deep relationships and long histories.

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For Susanne, a successful portrait must first and foremost be a successful work of art, measured by its ability to evoke and communicate emotion. This is the elusive and difficult quality she strives for. At the same time, painting a portrait can be a remarkably direct route to uncovering the emotions of both the artist and the sitter.

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Accommodation & Inclusions

Susanne Accommodation

Bedroom with Shared Bathroom: Single Occupancy: €1,980, Double Occupancy: €2,880

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Superior Bedroom with En-Suite: Single Occupancy: €2,490, Double Occupancy: €3,390

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Bedroom with En-Suite: Single Occupancy: €2,290, Double Occupancy: €3,190

Suite - Master bedroom, Living room, Mezzanine Bedroom & En-Suite Bathroom: Single Occupancy: €2,790, Double Occupancy: €3,690, Third Person: €900

What's included

  • 6 nights accommodation, with air-conditioning

  • All meals on-site: daily breakfast, 4 lunches, and            5 dinners with wine

  • Pizza making experience

  • Painting Easels

  • Arrival & departure transfers

  • Infinity pool

  • Tennis court

  • Wifi

  • Laundry facilities

  • VAT tax

Alpacas and farm animals roaming freely at Rignana Estate organic property in Tuscany

What's not included​​​

  • City tax (€2.50 per person per day to be paid in cash on arrival)

  • Materials

  • Tips & Gratuities

  • Meals off-site, including 1 dinner out at a local restaurant

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Optional Add-ons

  • Wine Tours

  • Massage

Materials to Bring

Drawing — Day 1

  • A1 heavy cartridge paper, 220gsm — several sheets

  • A3 sketchbook

  • Drawing ink

  • Dipping pen

  • Charcoal / Conté

  • Graphite sticks or 4B+ pencil

  • Putty rubber

  • Large soft round brush

Painting — Days 2–5

  • Small paint boards or oil painting paper for colour exercises

  • Large canvas or oil painting paper, approximately 100 × 70cm

  • Oil paints:

    • Titanium White

    • Ivory Black

    • Ultramarine Blue

    • Raw Sienna

    • Burnt Sienna

    • Lemon Yellow

    • Van Dyck Brown

    • Alizarin Crimson

    • Cadmium Red

    • Sap Green

    • Oxide of Chromium

    • Yellow Ochre

    • Payne's Grey

    • Raw Umber

    • Manganese Violet

  • Medium of your choice — linseed oil or stand oil

  • A range of small to large brushes, preferably round or filbert

  • Palette

  • Brush cleaner

  • Old rags for wiping brushes

 

 Gamsol will be provided

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