Asian Brush Painting Workshop - Itinerary

Sunday, 8/30: Between 4pm and 6pm you and your fellow workshoppers arrive and check in. After settling into your room, join us at 7pm for a meet-and-greet during an informal dinner at Le Vatout. Afterwards, feel free to hang out in the kitchen with your new friends, enjoy the breeze from the river in the garden or take a stroll to the village, just five minutes away. The Narrows Tavern, which features live music most nights during the summer, is a fun place to have a beer and get to know the locals.

Monday, 8/31 and Tuesday, 9/1: Breakfast is served between 8:30 to 9:30am. Just before 10am Jean comes to Le Vatout to fetch you for a day of discovering the ancient techniques of Asian brush painting. Jean starts with a demonstration. Then, she likes to work from “the part to the whole”, with the part being the practice of traditional Chinese brush strokes. After a scrumptious box lunch provided by Le Vatout it's time for “the whole” - serious painting with individual guidance interspersed throughout. Finally, around 3pm, critique. Before Jean leaves, she will pass out some of her specialty paper for water sketching, the ideal medium to continue practicing the magic of Asian brush sketching outdoors. Use it anywhere your eye leads you or return to Le Vatout to keep working in our romantic garden. For dinner we suggest Narrows Tavern, Moody’s Diner, a Midcoast landmark up on Rt.1 or Bullwinkles a little further down Rt.1 for solid, unpretentiously good food. Or we'll be happy to recommend one of the many fine restaurants in neighboring Damariscotta or Rockland.

Wednesday, 9/2: As on the previous days, breakfast will be between 8:30 and 9:30 am, followed by another full day of painting and instruction, but today you’ll stop painting a little bit earlier to take advantage of Jean’s invitation to visit her working studio overlooking the islands of Muscongus Bay. Try to be back home by 7pm, though, to enjoy a fabulous farewell dinner at Le Vatout.

Thursday, 9/3: Breakfast is served between 8:30 and 9:30 am. After breakfast take a last stroll through the garden and say good-bye to your new friends. Check-out is by 11am, but don’t be sad: you will take home new skills, plenty of memories and the beautiful pictures you painted on Midcoast Maine.