Art Retreat in Valencia

I’ve been back from my art retreat for just over a week and I’m still on a high from what an incredible experience it was, still busily working in my sketchbook recording my memories and making the most of all the inspiration. It’s hard to even know where to start. At the end of April I taught a week long art retreat with UpTrek just outside Valencia Spain with a wonderful group of women and we all had a magical time. During the week we focused on sketching and painting on location, using mixed media, developing a sketchbook practice, understanding colour theory, and capturing people. The week included day trips where we sketched on location in Valencia old town in the City of Arts and Sciences, as well as lots of time spent at the venue where I taught masterclasses and everybody had a chance to work in their sketchbooks and ask for help and advice.

For me as a teacher it was truly an honour to see my student’s work transformed in that week. I’ve done a lot of teaching before, but usually just for a couple of hours, maximum one day. It was really incredible to see students develop as artists, and for me as a teacher to be able to respond to them in real time and tailor the retreat to make sure they got the most out of it that they possibly could. I could see that for many of my students perfectionism and fear of making a mistake was holding them back. Some of my students were spending a really long time sketching and not painting, and when they did paint they were scared to add bold tonal contrast and texture. I took everybody to the Umbracle, a botanical garden in The City Arts and Sciences, and challenged everybody to do a 10 minute painting of a tree. Everybody picked a palm tree or an orange tree, gathered their materials, and then they add 10 minutes to paint it. And that was when the magic happened. People who had previously spent hours agonising over a painting, suddenly painted something beautiful in just 10 minutes, sometimes less. It’s amazing how the time restraint made people bolder and encouraged them to trust their own instincts. Everybody was amazed by what they had created! We did this exercise a few times and it was such a big breakthrough moment for people.

I also loved sharing my passion for painting on location. It was something that most people hadn’t done before, but sitting together painting, chatting, sharing materials and sipping on an orange juice or a Horchata and just felt so natural and people produced beautiful work imbued with memory and atmosphere. Valencia itself is such an incredibly beautiful city and was the perfect place to paint and gather inspiration.

For me the most wonderful thing about this trip, on top of seeing everyone’s artistic development, was how much everybody bonded and what a lovely group it was. We all had so much fun! Every evening at 7 we all gathered to share our sketchbooks over a glass of cava and a canapé. It was a real highlight for everyone. A favourite moment was going to see a flamenco show in Valencia, and our wonderful host Laura teaching us all some flamenco moves before we went. We had such a wonderful time! On the last night the venue hosts surprised me with a little book which they had asked all of my students to write a message in. It was so lovely it made me cry! And a few of my students got a little bit teary eyed as well.
A lot of people have been asking me if I will teach another retreat, and the answer is I would love to! I’m already making plans for next year, so watch this space, and sign up to my newsletter to be the first to hear about any new retreats.

My beautiful students looking very proud of their final pieces.

Gouache Sketchbook Online Course with Domestika

I am very excited to announce that I have a brand-new online course available with Domestika!! I’ve been working on this course with Domestika for quite some time and filmed it in their beautiful Islington studio earlier in the year. This course is all about one of my favourite things, working with gouache in a sketchbook! We look at using gouache, creating different consistencies of paint, creating textures, using different types of brush, colour theory as well as selecting reference photos, sketching and creating a final piece. We also look at how to scan, edit and reproduce your work, and even how to add hand lettering. I had so much fun filming this course and I am so excited to share the magic of working in a sketchbook with gouache with you!

You can watch the trailer to find out more.

Gouache Techniques for Sketchbook Illustration - A course by Emma Block from Domestika on Vimeo.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in click here to sign up at a special discount price, the course will be going live in one weeks time.

Filming this course was a really big deal for me as it was my first time being away from Herbie for that length of time. Just two weeks before he had been in hospital after a serious allergic reaction, so I was pretty anxious about the whole thing, but in the end I missed him way more than he missed me, which is usually the way with kids. I had so much fun making your course and I really hope you enjoy it.

Teaching with Watercolor Summit 0.2 Gouache Edition

One of my big goals for this year is to teach my first online workshop, and I am so pleased to announce that I am! I am so, so excited to be teaching along with seven other amazing artists in the Watercolour Summit 2.0 Gouache Edition. It’s an online creative summit, which means people from all around the world can join in.
I’m so excited to be sharing my knowledge on painting with gouache, with a particular focus on painting people.
Registration opens in April. Go to artsummits.com/emmab to sign up.