Written by Paul Worrall
Painting holidays genuinly occupy a strange, lovely corner of the travel industry — part art course, part actual holiday, and genuinly popular with a much wider range of people than you’d expect from something that sounds quite niche on paper. Whether you’ve never picked up a paintbrush or you’re a genuinly serious amateur wanting focused tuition somewhere beautiful, this is the honest, comprehensive breakdown of what’s actually out there, who runs it, what it actually costs, and what a week genuinly looks like once you’re there.
I’ve spent 16 years in the UK art supplies industry and now run Discount Art Supplies, used by over 41,000 UK artists every week. I’ve got a genuinly unusual personal connection to the holiday side of this too — long before any of that, I spent time working as a musician for TUI, as one half of a duo called Silhouette, and we were genuinly there right at the start, performing at the very first Sensatori resort in Crete back in 2008 and 2009. Genuinly happy memories, and it means I understand both halves of what a “painting holiday” actually promises — the art and the holiday — better than most people writing about this topic.
What Is a Painting Holiday, Actually?
A genuine painting holiday combines proper art tuition — usually from a working professional artist — with accommodation, meals, and time to actually explore wherever you’re staying. Group sizes are genuinly kept small, typically somewhere between 6 and 12 people, which means real one-to-one attention rather than a lecture-hall experience. Most cater honestly to a full range of ability, from complete beginners who’ve genuinly never held a brush to serious amateurs refining technique, and tutors are typically working, exhibiting artists themselves rather than generalist holiday activity staff.
A genuinly typical week runs something like this: mornings spent painting, either out on location or in a studio depending on weather and subject, a break for lunch (often included, sometimes a genuine highlight in its own right if the destination has strong local food culture), an afternoon session continuing the day’s work or a group critique, and evenings left free or built around a shared meal. Most operators genuinly build in at least one full free day or half-day excursion during a week-long course, recognising that a painting holiday needs to feel like a holiday too, not just relocated art school.
A Note on the Big Holiday Companies
It’s worth being honest about something before recommending specific providers: mainstream package holiday companies — TUI, Jet2holidays and similar — genuinly don’t offer dedicated painting-tuition holidays as a product category. That’s not a gap in this guide, it’s a genuine feature of the market. Painting holidays are inherently a small-group, specialist product built around expert tuition, which doesn’t fit the scale a mass-market operator works at — you won’t find “painting holiday” as a filter option on a big package holiday site the way you might find “all-inclusive” or “adults only.” If you’re looking for structured art teaching as part of your trip, the specialist operators below are genuinly where that actually exists, not the big household holiday names.
That said, it’s genuinly worth knowing that some mainstream resorts, particularly at the higher end, do sometimes offer casual art activities or workshops as part of a broader entertainment programme — nothing close to structured tuition from a professional artist, but worth asking about if you’re booking a general holiday and simply want the option to paint casually during downtime.
UK Painting Holidays
For anyone not wanting the hassle or cost of travelling abroad, the UK’s own painting holiday scene is genuinly rich and well-established, and arguably underrated compared to the pull of Tuscany or Provence. The Blackdowns Artist Retreat, sitting on the Somerset-Devon border, offers residential courses with award-winning tutors — including artists shortlisted for Sky Landscape Artist of the Year and the BP Portrait Award — in genuinly beautiful surroundings once painted by the Camden Town Group of post-impressionists a century ago. Classes are kept genuinly small, capped around 8 people, across 32 acres of woodland and meadow.
The School of Painting in St Ives, Cornwall runs courses from the historic Porthmeor Studios overlooking the sea, genuinly making the most of one of the UK’s most painted coastal towns — home to Tate St Ives and the Barbara Hepworth Museum, both genuinly worth building into free time around the tuition itself. Courses run 3 to 4 days and are structured around observation and studio practice, with the option to explore the coastline and galleries between sessions.
Field Studies Council offers oil and acrylic courses across several UK countryside centres, genuinly good for anyone wanting nature and wildlife as subject matter specifically, with techniques covering washing, stippling, pouring and splattering alongside more traditional instruction, and courses ranging from single days up to full week-long residential breaks.
Smaller, more personal operators are worth knowing too — Brambles Art Retreat in Devon runs genuinly intimate courses from a private home setting in Sprytown, with the tutors themselves hosting guests directly, walks through the Devon countryside built into the week, and a strong emphasis on hospitality alongside tuition. Big Sky Art Courses in North Norfolk pairs tuition with luxury accommodation at a period house near Burnham Market, genuinly popular for plein air painting when weather allows, with a spacious barn studio as backup.
Self-Guided Painting Breaks & Unique Stays
Not everyone wants a structured, tutor-led course — plenty of painters genuinly just want somewhere beautiful and quiet to go and paint on their own terms, without a timetable or a group critique session hanging over the week. If that’s more your pace, it’s worth thinking about accommodation as much as destination, since the right stay can genuinly do a lot of the inspiring for you.
Styled, characterful places to stay are genuinly worth seeking out over a generic holiday cottage — somewhere with a bit of personality tends to actually get painted, rather than just slept in. Airstream Hire UK supply beautifully restored Airstreams for stays and short breaks across the country, including a fixed glamping unit on the Lancashire coast complete with a private hot tub — the kind of genuinly distinctive setting that gives a self-guided painting week a proper sense of occasion, without the cost or commitment of a trip abroad.
Painting Holidays in Italy
Italy is genuinly the single most searched-for destination in this category, and Tuscany specifically dominates for good reason — rolling countryside, genuinly extraordinary light, and centuries of art history woven into the landscape itself, from Renaissance frescoes to the same rolling hills that have inspired painters for generations. Operators running Tuscany-based courses typically combine tuition with proper Italian food and wine as part of the experience, often including cookery elements or vineyard visits alongside the art, making it as much a genuine cultural immersion as a structured art course.
Sicily, Puglia and Umbria all come up regularly too, each offering a genuinly different flavour of the same core Italian painting holiday experience. Sicily brings dramatic coastline and volcanic landscape around Etna into the mix. Puglia’s whitewashed towns and olive groves offer a genuinly different, quieter light to Tuscany’s more famous hills. Umbria, often called Italy’s “green heart,” gives a genuinly less crowded, more contemplative version of the same rural Italian painting experience, with medieval hill towns as a recurring subject.
Painting Holidays in France, Spain and Greece
France is genuinly the second most popular destination after Italy, with Provence’s light and landscape drawing obvious, deliberate comparisons to the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists — Cézanne, Van Gogh, and others — who painted there and whose work still shapes how visiting painters see the region today. Lavender fields, hilltop villages and the particular quality of southern French light are the recurring draw.
Spain offers a genuinly different proposition depending on region — Andalusia’s whitewashed pueblos blancos and dramatic light suit a similar aesthetic to parts of Italy, while other regions offer more varied, less obviously “picturesque” subject matter for painters wanting something a little different from the postcard version.
Greece appeals specifically to anyone wanting genuinly dramatic coastal scenery and strong, high-contrast light for outdoor painting — the kind of clarity that changes how colour and shadow actually behave on the page, genuinly different from the softer light further north.
Watercolour, Oil or Acrylic — Choosing the Right Course
Most operators specialise, or at least offer clearly separated courses, by medium, and it’s worth choosing based on what you actually want to learn rather than what a specific destination happens to be known for. Watercolour is genuinly the most commonly taught medium on painting holidays specifically, largely because it’s portable and practical for outdoor, on-location painting — no solvents, quick drying, minimal equipment to carry between locations each day.
Oil and acrylic courses exist too, usually with more studio time built into the schedule given the practical demands of those mediums — oil’s slower drying time and acrylic’s need for careful colour planning both suit a more controlled studio environment better than watercolour’s spontaneity does. That said, plenty of operators genuinly do run excellent outdoor oil courses using alla prima (wet-on-wet, completed in one sitting) technique specifically suited to plein air work.
Singles, Beginners and Over-60s Options
A genuinly large proportion of painting holiday searches are specifically for singles-friendly trips, and it’s a real, well-served niche — many operators explicitly cater to solo travellers, with group dynamics and room arrangements built around that from the start rather than treating solo guests as an afterthought or charging a punishing single supplement. The small group format itself genuinly suits solo travellers particularly well, since a week spent painting alongside 6 to 12 other people naturally builds a sense of shared purpose and easy conversation that a bigger, more anonymous holiday format doesn’t.
Beginner-specific courses are equally common and genuinly well-structured, usually starting with fundamentals — colour mixing, composition, basic technique — before building toward more independent work by the end of the week, with tutors genuinly experienced at reading where each individual student actually is rather than assuming a baseline level.
Several operators also specifically market to an older demographic, recognising that painting holidays are genuinly popular among retirees with the time and inclination for a proper creative break — worth checking accessibility and mobility requirements directly with the operator if this matters, since some UK countryside locations genuinly do involve uneven ground or walking between studio and accommodation.
What Does a Painting Holiday Actually Cost?
Genuinly, this varies enormously depending on destination, duration and accommodation standard. A UK weekend course can run from a few hundred pounds including tuition and accommodation. A week-long residential trip within the UK typically sits somewhere in the mid hundreds to low thousands depending on the standard of accommodation and whether all meals are included. Travelling abroad — Italy or France specifically — for a week-long course with full board and quality accommodation can genuinly reach well over a thousand pounds per person once flights are factored in, and genuine luxury-tier options exist at the premium end for anyone wanting a properly indulgent experience alongside the tuition itself.
Worth factoring in separately: flights (if travelling abroad), travel insurance, and any art materials not included in the course price — always worth confirming this specifically before assuming everything’s covered.
What to Check Before You Book
Genuinly worth confirming before committing to any operator: group size (smaller genuinly means more individual tuition time — ask directly rather than assuming), whether art materials are included or you need to bring your own, the tutor’s actual teaching background and experience rather than just their exhibiting credentials (a genuinly excellent painter isn’t automatically a genuinly excellent teacher), what’s included beyond tuition specifically — meals, excursions, and free time to actually explore rather than paint constantly — and the cancellation and refund policy, particularly important for anything booked well in advance or dependent on international travel.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be experienced to go on a painting holiday? Genuinly no — most operators cater explicitly to complete beginners alongside more experienced painters, with tuition adjusted to individual level within the group rather than a fixed curriculum everyone follows regardless of starting point.
Does TUI offer painting holidays? Not as a dedicated product — mainstream package holiday operators like TUI and Jet2holidays genuinly don’t offer this kind of specialist, small-group art tuition. Specialist operators are where this actually exists.
Do I need to book a structured course, or can I just go somewhere nice and paint? Genuinly, either works — it depends entirely on what you want from the week. A structured course gives you tuition and critique from a working artist, while a self-guided break simply means choosing somewhere inspiring to stay and setting your own pace. Plenty of painters genuinly prefer the second option, particularly if they already have a reasonable grounding and just want time and a beautiful setting rather than formal instruction.
What should I bring? Always check with your specific operator, but many genuinly include materials in the price — worth confirming before packing your own kit unnecessarily, and worth asking specifically about paper, paint and brush provision rather than assuming everything’s covered.
How far in advance should I book? Popular destinations and well-known tutors genuinly do sell out, particularly for peak season courses in Italy and France — booking several months ahead is a genuinly sensible precaution rather than leaving it late.
If you’re gathering your own materials before a painting holiday, our guides to the best watercolour brushes and the best watercolour paper are worth reading beforehand.
