# Mixed Media Travel Sketchbooking Retreat with Artist Katie Moody in France Join artist Katie Moody in the countryside of Occitanie, southern France, for a travel sketchbook retreat open to all levels. Explore mixed media, gouache, watercolor, and brush pens as you learn to loosen up, embrace imperfection, and reconnect with the playful side of making art. Katie will guide you through daily sessions designed to help you move past hesitation and fill your sketchbook with bold marks, layered textures, and spontaneous discoveries. Experiment with color, shapes, and storytelling while building pages that reflect your personal journey through France.Your stay unfolds at a charming rural estate, where beautifully prepared meals and an inspiring, supportive atmosphere create the perfect setting to dive into your creativity. Throughout the retreat, you will gather inspiration from carefully planned trips: wander the medieval streets of Albi, photograph details and textures at the lively Gaillac market, and browse the Castres brocantes for vintage ephemera to weave into your work. These moments out in the world will spark fresh ideas and add a rich sense of place to your sketchbook. ## Details - **Dates:** June 2 - 9, 2026 - **Location:** Teyssode, Occitanie, France - **Starting Price:** $4,300 - **Category:** Painting ## Program ### Mixed Media Travel Sketchbooking Join artist Katie Moody in the sunlit countryside of Occitanie, southern France, where medieval villages and winding vineyards meet endless pockets of inspiration. This retreat will focus on travel sketchbooking, helping you loosen your grip on perfectionism and reconnect with a playful approach to making art. Katie will guide you in exploring mixed media, gouache, watercolor, and brush pens as you learn to capture fleeting moments and curious details from your surroundings.Across the week, you will work inside your travel sketchbook to explore color, texture, and mark-making in ways that bring a sense of freedom to the page. Katie will show you how to layer bold shapes with delicate details, create compositions that feel spontaneous, and transform your observations into expressive visual stories. Through her gentle feedback and demonstrations, you will discover new ways to weave together sketches, collage, photographs, and written fragments into pages that reflect both the spirit of Occitanie and your personal journey.Your creative sessions will be balanced with art trips designed to gather inspiration for your sketchbook. Spend a day in Albi, where red-brick towers rise above the Tarn River and the Toulouse-Lautrec Museum offers bursts of color and unexpected forms. Wander the lively Gaillac market, collecting reference photos, textures, and ephemera while taking notes on local colors and patterns. Later, explore the Castres brocantes, where vintage books, faded postcards, and found objects invite you to gather fragments of history for future collages. Each outing will build your library of images and ideas, giving you more to draw from when shaping your pages back at the venue.By the end of the retreat, you will return home with a body of work filled with layered sketches, color studies, and visual memories shaped by the French countryside. More than that, you will carry new approaches to seeing, recording, and creating, allowing your travel sketchbook practice to keep evolving long after the week ends.The topics covered during your lessons will include:Finding play and joy in the sketchbooksBreaking down complicated scenesLayout & compositionLine vs shapeHow to combine different subjects on a pageLoosening upDrawing architecturePainting botanicals...and many more.Your accommodation for the retreat will be a charming, restored estate in the countryside, offering the perfect environment for creative exploration. Outside of classes, you’ll enjoy wholesome French cuisine, relax by the pool, and connect with your fellow artists in a welcoming, supportive atmosphere. ### Day 1: Arrival Arrive at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport and join the 3:00 PM transfer to your retreat venue. After settling into your room, take a moment to unwind and absorb the tranquil surroundings. Meet your fellow artists and get acquainted with Katie Moody, your instructor for the retreat. As part of an orientation tour, explore the estate’s charming garden, the historic watchtower, and inviting communal spaces. In the evening, toast to the start of your creative journey with cocktails and bite-sized canapés, followed by a beautifully prepared three-course dinner, perfectly complemented by local wines. ### Day 2: Art classes at the venue Start the day with a lighthearted breakfast and coffee as you gather your materials and get ready to dive in.Settle into the space with Katie and ease into a playful morning designed to shake off perfectionism and open up your sketchbook with curiosity. Begin by exploring different tools and mediums, discovering how they can be layered and combined in unexpected ways. Flip through Katie’s own sketchbooks for inspiration and see how she captures movement, color, and texture on the page. Experiment freely with mark-making, washes, and brush pens as you start loosening your hand and finding rhythm in the layers.After lunch, step outside with your sketchbook in hand and walk the grounds with fresh eyes. Katie will lead a demo on simplifying a scene using the techniques from the morning, showing how to break down shapes and capture atmosphere without getting caught in the details. You’ll spend the afternoon working directly from what’s around you, letting the sounds, colors, and light guide your choices as you sketch and paint.Take some spare time before dinner to unwind. Wander the grounds, add a few last touches to your pages, or simply sit back and let the day settle in.End the evening gathered around the table, enjoying a fresh dinner paired with local wine, surrounded by lively conversation and the inspiration of shared work. ### Day 3: Art trip to Castres brocantes Wake to the scent of fresh coffee and warm bread before setting off toward Castres, where crooked streets and weathered facades invite your sketchbook to open.Wander through the brocantes, where every shelf and tabletop holds something unexpected that will spark your sketchbook. These French antique markets are full of forgotten objects and fragments of everyday history. Capture reference photos of hand-lettered signs that once hung above shopfronts, the softened edges of postcards worn smooth by time, or the intricate patterns on ceramics and embroidered textiles. Crates overflow with vintage packaging, delicate papers, printed labels, and small pieces of ephemera waiting to be rediscovered. If something stirs you, pause to make a quick sketch, but only if it feels natural. Collect fragments of inspiration that will later unfold across your pages and guide your compositions.Return to the venue in time to enjoy lunch before an afternoon spent arranging what you’ve gathered. Spread out your photos, ephemera, and sketches, then begin shaping them into layered compositions. Explore how to simplify the energy of a busy street or a crowded shop window into something playful and easy to draw. Use Katie’s guidance to focus on color, balance, and flow as you plan how each page can hold multiple elements without losing clarity. Bring together the vibrant produce, vintage signage, and textures from the morning into pages that feel alive and connected.Later, enjoy your leisure time by the pool, in the gardens, or gathered with others on the terrace as the day softens around you. Come together in the evening for a three-course dinner prepared by the in-house chef, paired with French wine, and share stories from the day’s discoveries. ### Day 4: Art trip to Gaillac market Begin the morning with a wholesome breakfast before setting off to Gaillac, a historic town on the Tarn River known for its Roman roots and deep ties to winemaking.Walk through stalls piled high with fresh produce, fragrant bread, local cheeses like Roquefort, and bottles of Gaillac AOC wine, a favorite of locals and connoisseurs alike. Sample flavors, gather inspiration, and collect visual references to bring into your sketchbook. If you feel drawn to capture the moment, sketch directly on location, or focus on taking photographs and noting colors, patterns, and details to use later. Among the market treasures, you will also find handmade pottery, textiles, jewelry, and other pieces that hold their own stories, perfect for bringing back as inspiration or keepsakes.Return to the venue for lunch, then carry the energy of the market into an afternoon devoted to still life. Warm up with quick sketches to explore composition, using objects and textures from the morning as your starting point. Experiment with layering gouache, watercolor, and brush pens, allowing marks to evolve naturally as you work. Shift your perspective freely, blending expressive strokes with carefully placed details. Katie will guide you through techniques that help you release control while building pages that feel alive and connected to the day’s discoveries.As the day winds down, spend your free time however you like before joining everyone for a beautifully prepared dinner paired with French wine, closing the day surrounded by the lively energy you’ve brought back from the market. ### Day 5: Art trip to Albi Step outside into the soft morning air and set out with Katie for the journey to Albi, watching the countryside roll past in quiet waves of farmland, vineyards, and scattered villages before the city begins to rise ahead.Begin your morning surrounded by Albi’s warm red brick and winding streets, a place where history settles into every surface. Katie will guide you through perspective exercises and architectural framing, showing how to break down intricate shapes into simple, sketchable forms. Watch the Basilica of Saint Cecilia lift above the skyline, its sculpted stone full of details waiting to be translated onto paper. Pause at the Pont Vieux bridge, where the Tarn River flows beneath you, and sketch fragments that speak to you while experimenting with watercolor washes, gouache layers, or brush pen marks that capture texture and depth without chasing perfection.After lunch by the river, continue into the afternoon at the Palais de la Berbie. Walk through the fortress gardens, where the geometry of the terraces contrasts with soft bursts of green and floral edges. Photograph textures and color shifts, collect reference material, and work with Katie on layering techniques to translate those impressions into your sketchbook. Capture the atmosphere rather than accuracy, shaping studies that hold movement, shadow, and light across a page.Return to the venue as the evening settles in and enjoy dinner paired with French wine, carrying Albi’s streets and gardens back with you in your pages. ### Day 6: Art at the venue & wine tasting A bright breakfast will carry you into a morning of loosening up with Katie, diving deeper into playful mark-making and botanicals.Prepare your pages with bold blocks of color, building textured grounds that invite layers to grow naturally on top. Work loosely with mixed media, gouache, watercolor, and brush pens, letting each material react differently and shape your choices. Katie will guide you through creating backgrounds that suggest movement and depth, setting up spaces where botanicals and other details will later emerge. You will return to the mark-making explored earlier in the week and rediscover how small, intuitive gestures can shift the energy of an entire page. By combining textures and shapes in unexpected ways, build sketchbook spreads that feel alive and open rather than controlled or overworked.After a satisfying midday meal, you will set out for an afternoon among the vines at a nearby château winery. Walk through the rows of sunlit grapes and take in the shifting patterns of color and light, gathering textures and palettes to bring back into your sketchbook. Capture reference photos if you wish and collect moments of inspiration that will feed into your pages later. The visit will close with a tasting of locally made wines before returning to the venue in the late afternoon, where time will open up for rest or more personal sketching.As the day winds down, you will gather with your group for a thoughtfully prepared dinner paired with wine, ending the evening with the warmth of good food and shared creativity. ### Day 7: Art classes at the venue Ease into your final full day with a relaxed breakfast and a warm drink while you chat with the group about the creative celebration ahead.The morning will focus on finishing the sketchbook spreads you began earlier in the week and preparing them for the afternoon. Katie will guide you as you refine existing pages, add fresh layers, and bring together textures and marks from previous sessions. Use mixed media, gouache, watercolor, and brush pens to create cohesion across your work while keeping the energy loose and spontaneous.After lunch, you will look through the sketches you’ve gathered during the retreat and spend time with Katie discussing your progress. She will share feedback and ideas to carry forward before you prepare for a joyful mini-exhibition of your work. Walk around, take in the pages created by everyone, and celebrate the discoveries made along the way.As the retreat draws to a close, gather one last time for a beautifully prepared farewell dinner and raise a glass to everything you explored and created. ### Day 8: Departure After enjoying a satisfying breakfast with Katie and the art group, it's time to bid farewell and exchange any last contact details. Prepare for your transfer to Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, scheduled for 10:00 AM, with an estimated arrival time of 11:00 AM. ## Instructors - **Katie Moody** - Mixed-media sketchbook artist & educator ## Accommodation ### Historic French Estate ### Shared ensuite attic room (female only) ### Shared standard ensuite room (female only) ### Shared superior ensuite room ### Shared bathroom - single room (female only) ### Single room - adjacent bathroom ### Single standard ensuite room ### Single superior ensuite room ## Book This Retreat Visit [https://uptrek.com/retreat/mixed-media-travel-sketchbooking-retreat-artist-katie-moody-france](https://uptrek.com/retreat/mixed-media-travel-sketchbooking-retreat-artist-katie-moody-france) to make a reservation. *Provided by [UpTrek](https://uptrek.com)*