Soak in the morning light, fill your pencil case up with your favourite materials, and join artist Sophie McPike for a magical retreat and travel journal sketchbook adventure in the stunning Dordogne region of France. Turn real-world sights into mixed-media pages bursting with watercolor, markers, and fearless imagination. Expect a safe, joy-filled space for all levels, powered by self-expression, playfulness, and experimentation.

Stay at a historic estate and spend each day with Sophie guiding warm-up mark making, fast on-location sketching, and mixed-media layering. Learn practical fundamentals such as color mixing, simple value planning, and water control with watercolor, and strategies for idea-getting using a mix of observation and experimentation.

Paint indoors and outdoors from real-life references, and stick in collected bits and bobs straight onto your pages, and write down your thoughts and experiences. Step-by-step demos, open Q&A, and gentle feedback will keep momentum high and perfectionism low.

Eat together, create together, and wind down with relaxed conversations that spark fresh ideas. You will head home with a sketchbook packed with layered spreads, new techniques, and the confidence to keep being curiously compassionate in the way you work in your sketchbook long after the retreat comes to an end.

All experience levels will find a welcome place at the table, and everyone will come away feeling fearlessly silly with art that feels unmistakably personal.