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
Susanne's Tuition Fee: €500
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.
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.
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.
Throughout the retreat, we’ll look at:
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Drawing as a way of seeing and understanding the figure
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Developing confidence with the full figure
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Gesture, proportion and visual memory
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Expressive and observational drawing
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Shape and value
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Using colour creatively
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Developing your own colour palette
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Composition and choosing the right format
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Moving from drawing into painting
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Maintaining energy and spontaneity
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Developing likeness without losing expression
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Seeing and responding to subtle changes in perceptual colour
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Knowing what to refine — and what to leave alone
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Bringing a painting to a confident and coherent conclusion
Each day will begin with relevant examples and artistic influences, alongside useful notes and guidance to support your development.
Course Outline
Thursday 6th May
16:00 - Check in & Estate Tour
18:00 - Welcome aperitivo followed by dinner
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
Accommodation & Inclusions
Bedroom with Shared Bathroom: Single Occupancy: €1,980, Double Occupancy: €2,880
Superior Bedroom with En-Suite: Single Occupancy: €2,490, Double Occupancy: €3,390
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
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6 nights accommodation, with air-conditioning
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All meals on-site: daily breakfast, 4 lunches, and 5 dinners with wine
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Pizza making experience
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Painting Easels
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Arrival & departure 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
What's not included
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City tax (€2.50 per person per day to be paid in cash on arrival)
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Materials
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Tips & Gratuities
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Meals off-site, including 1 dinner out at a local restaurant
Optional Add-ons
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Wine Tours
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Massage
Materials to Bring
Drawing — Day 1
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A1 heavy cartridge paper, 220gsm — several sheets
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A3 sketchbook
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Drawing ink
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Dipping pen
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Charcoal / Conté
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Graphite sticks or 4B+ pencil
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Putty rubber
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Large soft round brush
Painting — Days 2–5
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Small paint boards or oil painting paper for colour exercises
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Large canvas or oil painting paper, approximately 100 × 70cm
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Oil paints:
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Titanium White
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Ivory Black
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Ultramarine Blue
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Raw Sienna
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Burnt Sienna
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Lemon Yellow
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Van Dyck Brown
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Alizarin Crimson
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Cadmium Red
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Sap Green
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Oxide of Chromium
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Yellow Ochre
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Payne's Grey
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Raw Umber
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Manganese Violet
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Medium of your choice — linseed oil or stand oil
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A range of small to large brushes, preferably round or filbert
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Palette
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Brush cleaner
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Old rags for wiping brushes
Gamsol will be provided