# Inspired By Nature - Watercolor and Mixed Media Art Retreat with Artist Caroline Simas in France Immerse yourself in a joyful, nature-inspired, women-only art retreat with artist Caroline Simas, set in the sun-soaked countryside of southwestern France. Built around the endlessly exciting world of mixed media, this retreat will invite you to explore the colors, patterns, and textures of the natural world through watercolor, collage, acrylic, cyanotype printing, clay work, and so much more.Whether you are picking up a paintbrush for the first time or looking to push your practice somewhere new and unexpected, Caroline has designed every session to be accessible, hands-on, and genuinely fun!Head out on two wonderful day trips that will feed directly into your creative work. An afternoon in Cahors will take you through a gorgeous medieval city followed by a riverboat cruise along the Lot, sketchbook in hand and art prompts at the ready. A full day in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val will send you wandering cobblestone streets and brocante markets along the dramatic Aveyron Gorges before continuing to the spectacular Jardins de Quercy, where botanical inspiration is quite literally everywhere you look.Work in a spacious, light-filled studio housed in a beautifully restored barn, or step outside to shaded terraces and garden paths for open-air sessions. Vary your setting throughout the week using alternate creative spaces like the piano room or smaller garden studio. Unwind in elegant ensuite rooms with scenic views, recharge by the heated pool, and come together each evening for delicious, chef-prepared meals. ## Details - **Dates:** April 3 - 10, 2027 - **Location:** Sainte Alauzie, Lot-et-Garonne, France - **Starting Price:** $4,700 - **Category:** Painting ## Program ### Watercolor and Mixed Media Retreat Pack your bags and your curiosity, because this women-only retreat with artist Caroline Simas in the sun-drenched hills of southwestern France is about to change the way you see the natural world. Built around mixed media and nature as an endless source of inspiration, immerse yourself in the colors, textures, and living forms that surround you.Caroline will bring her energy, generosity, and a genuine gift for helping artists of every level find their own voice.Come ready to get your hands wonderfully messy! Your reference material is everywhere: the garden outside the studio, a walk through a medieval market, a bloom floating in a bowl of water. Stay open, and the whole week becomes one long source of inspiration.Two day trips will pull you out into the wider landscape with sketchbook and art prompts at the ready. A full day in Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val takes you deep into a spectacular medieval town nestled against the cliffs of the Aveyron Gorges, then onward to the Jardins de Quercy, where the planting is lush and the light through the trees is extraordinary. A separate afternoon heads into Cahors, a city of warm brick and ancient bridges, rounding off with a riverboat cruise along the Lot River that offers an entirely different perspective on pattern, reflection, and color.By the end of the week, you will go home with a handmade sketchbook, cyanotype prints, clay botanical pieces, a hand-painted canvas tote, collage works, raw canvas paintings, hand-painted note cards, a decorated wine bottle, and so much more. More than the objects themselves, though, you will take with you a sharpened eye, a looser hand, and the wonderful knowledge that nature has been giving you everything you needed all along!The topics covered during your lessons will include:Unleash the artist within through creative play and expressionStay loose and embrace imperfectionGather inspiration from the world around youDiscover multiple ways to incorporate nature into your artCreate loose florals with watercolor and inkExperiment with mixed media through paint, pattern play & collagePursue the magic of cyanotypes and natural dyesLearn to paint with wine and also hand-paint a bottle to take home!Discover your creative voice and develop your unique style Understand tips for creating a daily practiceFind joy in creating art through the use of many mediums...and many more!Stay on a private estate set across 75 acres of fields, forests, and manicured gardens in the heart of Lot-et-Garonne. Work in a light-filled converted barn studio, a smaller studio with garden access, or the piano room in the main house. The grounds include two ponds, a heated pool, walking trails, terraces, and a variety of outdoor seating areas perfect for sketching or reflection. Between sessions, unwind in spacious ensuite rooms and comfortable shared spaces with views in every direction. ### Day 1: Arrival Get transferred from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS) at 3:00 PM, arriving at the venue by 4:00 PM. Settle into your room, then join Caroline and your fellow artists for an orientation tour, exploring the gardens, the lovely terraces, the creative studio, and communal spaces. Over a fabulous welcoming dinner, enjoy a relaxed conversation about the week ahead while savoring local flavors and a glass of regional wine. ### Day 2: Art at the venue Fuel up with a hearty breakfast before bounding into the studio with Caroline, buzzing with excitement for a day that weaves reflection, making, and the natural world just outside the door into something truly magical.The morning kicks off with a journal prompt, a joyful nudge to dig into what draws you to nature and what you most want to capture during the retreat. From there, things get wonderfully hands-on as you craft your very own handmade sketchbook, your personal creative companion for the days ahead. Sketchbook in hand, head outside with Caroline for a nature walk full of discovery, gathering materials, textures, and little treasures from the landscape around you.Back in the studio, all those gorgeous gathered impressions pour straight into the morning's final session: "Flower Power," a delightful deep dive into botanical forms through watercolor and ink that shakes up the hand and blows open your visual imagination.After lunch, the afternoon is pure creative joy as you get stuck into hand-painting canvas totes with acrylic paints, bringing the morning's floral world into an exciting new format. Caroline will guide you in weaving in some of the stamped flowers you have developed, stitching a beautiful visual thread between the sessions and sending your nature-inspired work out into the world in style.As evening rolls in, the day saves its best surprise for last: a surprise team-building activity! Unwind with the group before sitting down together for a three-course dinner paired with wine, swapping stories from the day and looking ahead to what comes next. ### Day 3: Trip to Cahors with a riverboat tour Enjoy a relaxed breakfast, then ease into the morning over coffee as you check in with the group and prepare for the day ahead. Get ready for a day packed with creativity and discovery!Dedicate the morning to one of the most satisfying things you can do with paint, paper, and a whole lot of imagination: "Pattern Play"! Working with a wonderful variety of mixed media, build richly textured pattern backgrounds that will become the raw material for future collages. Think lush landscapes, dreamy florals, cozy nests, fluttering butterflies, and bold botanical forms, all bursting off the page with color and life. Caroline will guide you through the process, helping you find your own instincts around mark-making and texture so that each background feels genuinely yours.After lunch, pack your travel art supplies because the afternoon calls for an adventure. The group heads to Cahors, a gorgeous medieval city wrapped in a bend of the Lot River, with a sketchbook assignment in hand. Caroline's art prompts will send you off to look more closely at the world around you, tuning into architectural details, garden design, unexpected color schemes, and the patterns hiding in plain sight all over the old town. Document your findings, sketch what surprises you, and photograph anything that sparks an idea worth holding onto.The afternoon rounds off with a riverboat tour along the Lot, drifting past the magnificent Pont Valentré as the light does extraordinary things to the water and stone. Keep your sketchbook handy because the views from the river are not to be missed!Roll back to the estate in the early evening, glowing from a day well spent, and sit down to a three-course dinner with wine that feels like the perfect full stop on an absolutely wonderful day. ### Day 4: Art at the venue Kick off the morning with a nourishing breakfast and a check-in over coffee with Caroline to walk through what the day has in store.Then things get wonderfully wild and (a little bit science-y) as the morning dives headfirst into "Dyeing with Nature." Working with natural botanical elements gathered from the world around you, you'll press flowers and leaves onto chemically prepared papers and send them out into the sunshine to do their magic.Cyanotype printing is one of those processes that never gets old; watching the sun slowly reveal your botanical compositions in deep indigo and white is nothing short of spellbinding! Caroline will guide you through the process from start to finish, and no two prints will ever come out exactly the same, which is precisely what makes it so exciting.After lunch, the afternoon swings back into the world of collage you started building earlier in the week. Caroline will guide you in pushing your mixed media collages further, layering newfound textures and imagery into compositions inspired by the natural world. The textures and prints from the morning feed beautifully into the collage work, giving you fresh material to tear into and play with.Before dinner, spread your pieces out and take a moment to absorb how far the work has come. Then, gather around the table for a wonderful evening meal that gives everyone the chance to celebrate the day's work together. ### Day 5: Trip to Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val and Jardins de Quercy Wake up to a satisfying breakfast, then gather with Caroline over coffee to get excited about everything the day has in store.Pack your art supplies and your sketchbook because today is a full day out in the world! Head to Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, a breathtaking medieval town wedged between dramatic cliffs along the Aveyron Gorges. Caroline will send you off with an art prompt assignment that sharpens your eye. Wander the cobblestone streets and brocante markets, tuning into architectural details, garden design, unexpected color combinations, and the extraordinary patterns hiding in worn stone and ironwork. Document everything that catches your eye, and sketch what stops you in your tracks!Pause midday to enjoy lunch together before the afternoon adventure begins.From there, continue to Jardins de Quercy, a gorgeous French botanical garden where the light through the trees makes you want to immediately reach for your watercolors. Caroline's prompts will continue here, nudging you to look closely at natural form, texture, color relationships, and the way the garden composes itself at every turn. Fill your sketchbook and gather as much inspiration as you can carry.The drive back offers one final treat: a sweeping viewpoint over the Aveyron Gorges, with pale cliffs rising against the sky and the river glinting far below.Arrive back at the venue glowing from a day spent entirely in beautiful places, and wind down over a three-course dinner with wine that brings the whole wonderful day to a warm close. ### Day 6: Art at the venue Light stretches across the hills as you sit down to a warming breakfast, then gather with Caroline over coffee to talk through everything the day has bubbling away in store.The morning is devoted to one of the most tactile and satisfying things imaginable: making clay botanical trinket dishes and ornaments! Press real flowers and leaves directly into clay to create beautiful imprinted keepsakes that carry the texture and shape of the natural world. Caroline will guide you through shaping, pressing, and detailing each piece. The results? Gorgeous little objects you will absolutely want to take home!After lunch, the afternoon takes a wonderfully unexpected turn. Caroline will introduce you to the art of hand-painting wine bottles, transforming them into one-of-a-kind decorative pieces inspired by the botanicals and landscapes that have been fueling the week's work. Then comes the real showstopper: painting with wine itself. Using red wine as your medium, work in monochromatic florals and landscapes, discovering how the deeply pigmented and wonderfully unpredictable material moves across the page.Before dinner, take some time to recharge, or simply admire everything you have made. Then, come together for a three-course dinner with wine, celebrating a day that managed to be both wildly creative and genuinely delicious. ### Day 7: Art at the venue Wake up and savor a celebratory breakfast together before gathering with Caroline to talk about everything you have made and how far your work has evolved since day one.Spend the morning working on dyed papers and raw canvas. Create finished paintings that pull together the colors, textures, and botanical language you have been developing all week, with Caroline on hand to help you push each piece to its most vibrant and confident state. Pull out anything unfinished from earlier in the week and give it the attention it deserves, because everything you have made is worth completing!Following a refreshing lunch, the afternoon is a joyful and slightly emotional finale. Start by hand-painting note cards, beautiful little nature-inspired keepsakes that make wonderful gifts or personal mementos from the week. Then, Caroline will have a surprise reflection project up her sleeve, all in preparation for the mini-exhibition. You'll spread your work out and get to see the full, extraordinary picture of what you and your fellow artists have created.As the sun starts to dip, raise a glass at the farewell dinner table and celebrate a week of making, exploring, and growing together, with a three-course dinner and great company to send everyone home thoroughly inspired. ### Day 8: Departure Enjoy breakfast with Caroline and your fellow artists, and get ready for your transfer to Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, Toulouse (TLS). Check-out is at 10:00 AM, and you'll arrive at the airport at around 11:30 AM. ## Instructors - **Caroline Simas** - Artist, mentor, creative business coach ## Accommodation ### Historic French Estate ### Shared standard ensuite room ### Shared superior ensuite room ### Shared deluxe room - private ensuite bathrooms ### Single standard ensuite room ### Single superior ensuite room ### Single deluxe ensuite room ## Book This Retreat Visit [https://uptrek.com/retreat/inspired-by-nature-watercolor-mixed-media-retreat-artist-caroline-simas-france](https://uptrek.com/retreat/inspired-by-nature-watercolor-mixed-media-retreat-artist-caroline-simas-france) to make a reservation. *Provided by [UpTrek](https://uptrek.com)*