EVOCATIVE LANDSCAPES - OIL AND COLD WAX PAINTING IN SCOTLAND WITH GILLIAN LEE SMITH

Inverness, Scotland

June 8-15, 2025

Join UK artist Gillian Lee Smith in Inverness, Scotland for an Evocative Landscapes workshop using oil and cold wax.

The atmosphere of place is always at the heart of Gillian’s landscape paintings – she seeks to go beyond pure representation or replication but to evoke somehow a sense of place, memory, and emotion. Through multiple layers of color, texture and value where almost as much paint is removed as is laid down, it’s a process that can render the most beautiful and unexpected results.

Immersing ourselves in the landscape on our trips out, we will sketch the places we visit—the landscape, castles, and surrounding areas of Inverness – an evocative, soul-enriching place that will inspire the colors and atmosphere of our paintings.

Itinerary

Day One, Sunday June 8 – Everyone arrives and we will meet for our first group dinner at Hou Hou Mei.

Day Two, Monday June 9 - Have breakfast before meeting in the Millburn Room where Gillian will show examples of her oil and cold wax medium landscapes and castle paintings sharing how plein air and sketchbook watercolor sketches have been inspiring her recent explorations in oil and cold wax painting.

We will play with our small palette of watercolors before venturing out on our first sketching trip on Monday afternoon. We will board the Temptation Tour that takes us by bus to the legendary Loch Ness. Here we will cruise the Loch stopping at the Urquhart Castle where you will sketch for an hour before returning to Inverness. Lunch and Dinner (Jimmy Badgers) will be provided.

Day Three, Tuesday June 10 - Have breakfast before meeting in the Millburn Room at 9:30 a.m. Here we will play with mark-making, layering, and scraping back to build layers in our paintings. We will stop for lunch before we explore color mixing and continue building layers on several paintings simultaneously. Dinner will be at 27 Castle Street.

Day Four, Wednesday June 11 – Today is another day trip to absorb the beautiful landscape, collect sketches and inspiration, make color notes and additional drawing and writing to bring back to the studio to help us further develop our paintings. Have breakfast at the hotel then we will meet for an excursion to Dunrobin Castle, a 1-hour bus ride north of Inverness. Lunch will be at the castle. Dinner will be at The Mustard Seed.

Day Five, Thursday June 12 —Have breakfast before we meet in the Millburn Room at 9:30 a.m. We will continue to add layers to our paintings, building up textures, scraping back, and experimenting with solvent reductions. We will focus on beginning to further develop our paintings through shape, value, color, texture, and atmosphere. Lunch. Dinner will be at the River House.

Day Six, Friday June 13 —Have your breakfast before meeting in the Millburn Room for our final day of painting. We will refine our collection of small paintings to create compositions that speak of our experience of being in this wonderful landscape. Lunch will be provided. Dinner is on your own this evening.

Day Seven —- Saturday June 14 – A final day to explore the local area together. What better way to understand the Scottish Highlands then to visit the Culloden battlefield and museum. Located only 5 miles from Inverness, we will spend the morning here with lunch in the cafe. After returning to Inverness, you will have the afternoon free before we meet for our final dinner together this evening at Cafe 1.

Day 8 - Sunday June 15 — Everyone leaves or stays on to enjoy further exploring Scotland.

This Art Escape Includes

• Five days instruction from Gillian

• Seven nights accommodation at the Leonardo Hotel based on double occupancy

• All meals except for one dinner

• Visit to Loch Ness, Urquhart Castle, Dunrobin Castle and Gardens, Culloden Battlefield and Museum

• Some supplies

• New Art Tribe

The cost for this Escape is $4200, based on double occupancy. A single room supplement charge is $600. A $1,000 deposit is due upon registering. The remaining payment is due February 8, 2025.

Travel insurance is required.

Where we will be staying:

Leonardo Hotel Inverness

Millburn Road, IV2 3TR Inverness, +44 87 04100800

They have a spa and an indoor heated pool!

We will Provide

• Paper Towels

• Tissue Paper

• Glassine Paper

• Sheets of Palette Paper

Supply List

• Camera or phone camera

• A sketchbook

• Drawing pencils, sharpener, eraser

• A small portable palette of 4 – 6 watercolors with a mixing palette (Gillian will list some recommendations for colors)

• A portable water container

• Two or three watercolor brushes

• A small spray bottle

• Easy peel masking tape (blue or green tape)

• A pad of Arches Oil (Huile paper) – 16 x 20 inches

• A tin of Gamblin cold wax medium

• A small bottle of Gamblin solvent

• A small selection of oil paints (Gillian will share color recommendations)

• A small glass jar

• A pipette dropper

• A couple of palette knives

• A soft brayer

• One or two small silicone squeegees (like bowl scrapers) (4 to 6 inches in size)

• A one-inch bristle brush

• A couple of other brushes (Gillian will recommend sizes)

• Embossing tool

• Optional Extras

  ● One or two oil bars

  ● Small gessoed boards – 8 x 10 inches max

This itinerary may change due to weather, new opportunities or the whim of the group.

Gillian Lee Smith is a Scottish artist living in the beautiful, historic North-East coast of England that daily influences her work. As a teacher, Gillian is inspired to bring her love of people and place to each workshop using a wealth of techniques to make new discoveries along with her students. She has several very successful online courses and a mentoring program.

THE POWER OF 12 WITH MICHAEL SHEMCHUK

October 3-11, 2025

Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico

Join Michael Shemchuk aka Shem in the UNESCO city of Oaxaca, the state capital of Oaxaca, Mexico for a dynamic workshop that will allow you to produce a cohesive body of work.

The Power of 12 workshop is designed for artists who desire to create a body of work. With a focus on quality and quantity, we work on 12 (yes 12!) 12”x12” panels.

In this class we take our creative energy onto the production line. This fast paced class is an exercise in design, composition and decision making at a high production level. The grouping of 12 panels presents a pivotal opportunity to format and orient your work in numerous ways. You decide which orientation format and visual dialog you want between your panels — Rows (6 over 6), Stacked (3 over 4), Vertical, Diptychs, Triptychs or all 12 panels in a linear installation. It’s your preference.

AbD (Abstraction by Design)

The Abstraction by Design method is the process of exploring collage and painting techniques by multi-layering the mediums of paper and paint on panels.

The layering of paper and paint enables us to sand, scrape, wet, peel, paint, collage and repeat to create controlled and incidental textured surfaces. We use acrylic polyurethane as a glue to attach papers, as a resist coat, and as a top coat as well.

Collaging involves color selection, paper choices, placement, gluing, mark making, composition and surface extraction. Painting involves panel prep, trowel application, brushing, sanding, surface manipulations, paint mixing and texturing.

A.R.R. (Action, Review, Reaction)

We begin the AbD process with an action by applying paint or collage to our panels. Pause and review the action, then repeat another action.

This requires taking time to observe your work, measure your response to both the controlled (deliberate) and spontaneous (incidents/happy accidents). We follow the A.R.R. principles as we create your work.

ITINERARY

Day 1, Friday, October 3. Everyone arrives and we will meet at 6:30 outside of the studio for a welcome drink and some botanas.

Day 2, Saturday, October 4. Have breakfast and then meet in the studio at 9:30 a.m. to start creating with Shem. We will stop for lunch at 12:30, then afterward, we will take you on a quick walking tour to help orient you to this wonderful city. We will return to the studio and continuing working until 5:00 p.m. At 7:00 p.m. we will walk to our friend Chef Pilar Cabrera’s La Olla restaurant for our special dinner on the rooftop.

Day 3, Sunday, October 5. Breakfast and then into the studio at 9:30 a.m. We will break for lunch and then continue creating. You will have some free time at 4:30 before we meet for dinner this evening.

Day 4, Monday, October 6. TRAVEL DAY Have breakfast and then meet in the lobby at 8:30 a.m. We will travel to the Blind Potter’s studio in San Antonio for a private lesson with members of his family. We will stop for lunch before our back strap weaving demonstration with the lovely Gomez family. Afterward, we will visit Jacobo and Maria Angeles’ expansive studio in Tilcajete to learn about the alebrijes, those colorfully painted animals found in this village. Dinner will be on your own this evening.

Blind Potter’s Studio below

The amazing work of Jacobo and Maria’s studio - from carving, painting and some of the finished work.

This Art Escape includes:

• 8 nights accommodations (double occupancy)

• Visits to different artisan villages -alebrijes, backstrap weaving, pottery

• Instructions/guidance from Shem

• Welcome reception and fiesta

• All meals except for two dinners

• Visits to markets

• 2 Cooking Classes

• Free time to explore

• Farewell dinner

• Some supplies

• Private Facebook page

• New Art Tribe

The price for this workshop is $4,100 and limited to 12 people. A limited number of single rooms are available for an additional $600.

A $1,000 non refundable deposit is due upon registering. The final payment is due June 11, 2025.

Price does not include:

• airfare to/from Oaxaca

• alcoholic beverages

Travel insurance is required. See FAQs for recommendations.

Accommodations: Located in a colonial building just two blocks from the zocolo, Hotel Naura has free wifi, a restaurant, a pool, bar and rooftop terrace. It is located across from the Textile Museum. 

Airport: Xoxocotlan International Airport is an international airport located in Oaxaca City, in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The Airport has only one terminal that handles domestic and international air traffic. Code: OAX.

We will Provide

• scrubber sponges

• 80 grit sandpaper and sanding block

• 2” chip brushes

• gallon buckets

• paint rags/stir sticks

• White and black latex house paint

• Acrylic urethane/varnish clean medium (gloss or semigloss)

• Pint/quart plastic mixing containers w/lids

• Gallon buckets

• Heat gun

Student Supply List

• Twelve 12”x12” wood panels

• 18+ sheets black tissue. Resource: https://www.papermart.com

• 12+ sheets 18”x22” newsprint.

• Variety of personal collage papers and color tissue (color, pattern, graphics, craft paper and re-purposed).

• Color paint. 3-6 colors of latex house or acrylic artist paints or liquid pigments

• One 6”wide flexible broad knife and

• One 1” putty knife.

• Scissors

• Utility knife

• Spray bottle (atomizer)

• wiping rags

• artist brushes

• painters tape

Day 5, Tuesday October 7. Breakfast, studio, lunch, studio and then we will meet this evening for dinner of tlayudas.

Day 6, Wednesday, October 8. Same as day 5 except this evening, we will have a cooking class with Chef Ana Elena Martinez.

Day 7, Thursday October 9, TRAVEL DAY. Have your breakfast and then meet in the lobby for our ride to the weaving village of Teotitlan del Valle for our cooking class with Chef Reyna Mendoza. You will have some free time after we return to Oaxaca and dinner will be on your own.

Day 8, Friday, October 10. Breakfast and then meet in the studio at 9:00 a.m. to finish our work. After we clean up, we will have a Show ‘N Tell. You will be amazed at what you create! Then off to the market for lunch and then you will have the afternoon free before we gather for our final dinner together.

Day 9, Saturday, October 11. The trip is over.