A classic Tuscan farmhouse in a sweeping landscape on the hills surrounding San Gimignano.

Live for a Week in a Tuscan Hill Town

May 11 – 18, 2024 holds a New San Gimignano Painting Workshop opportunity. We will be living for the week in the quintessential Tuscan hill town of San Gimignano, also known as the town of towers as it features numerous preserved medieval tower houses.

The main piazza of San Gimignano features the beautiful medieval cistern which we shall surely paint!

San Gimignano is beautiful in itself and is surrounded by some of the most lovely Tuscan countryside full of vineyards, olive groves, tile roofed homes, cypresses, and curving dirt roads. Paintings appear at every turn.

View from Our shared Terrace Painting Location

This might be my first painting at the New San Gimignano Painting Workshop!

Each Day Will Be Full of Beauty and Painting Inspiration

Our days will be a balance of staying in our home town to paint the Piazza di Cisterna which is right outside our hotel doors, and venturing outside the city walls to paint the landscape, and visiting other equally lovely and indicative Tuscan towns to explore and paint.

This Week’s Cultural Experience will Focus on the Art of Cooking

We always have a day of cultural fun during the week and this year we are spending the day with the well known and most kind Emiko Davies and her sommelier husband Marco Lami at their private cooking school Enoteca Marilou in San Miniato.

I did a test run with them last year and it was such a great experience we are returning this year. Our day will be spent food shopping in the local market, and then making pasta and other wonderful food which we will sit down and eat as a late lunch feast. Last year we even had fried flowers which Marco had just harvested down the street! It was experiencing the true art of Italian cooking.

Marco with his flower harvest!

Margie enjoyed pasta making!

Garden La Foce is another treat during the  New San Gimignano Painting Workshop

Another treat and photo op for future paintings will be touring Garden La Foce created and made famous by Iris Origo. It is stunning. It would be wonderful to paint on location there but they don’t allow it. We will soak up the ambience and it will come through in future pieces.

View of the spectacular Garden La Foce

This workshop is available to artists of all levels from beginner to professional. I demonstrate my way of approaching a painting and take it through to completion for your observation if desired. All choose their own subject matter and I assist individuals as needed and desired.

For the novices I will have some very quick and non – threatening ways for you to get going on a painting without laboring over any aspect of the process.

It is meant to be a free and expressive experience and everyone achieves much success and creates some beautiful and distinctive art work. We all learn by doing and from each other.

It is a go at your own pace experience focused on individual instincts and creative growth.

Please visit the Links below to learn more specifics and register for the New! San Gimignano Painting Workshop and other painting workshop opportunities created by En Plein Air with Virginia Fergus LLC.

For En Plein Air Workshops, click here »

Virginia Fergus leads small group Plein Air Painting Workshops in Italy and France that are unique opportunities for creative immersion and personal transformation. Each workshop includes plein air painting experiences in curated locations, sensitive and personal instruction, experienced and empathetic guidance, artistic immersion, beautiful accommodations and delicious meals in authentic and particular locations, and new friends for the journey. Ginny's personal motto is “Authentic, Intimate, Beautiful” and is the creative and experiential goal of each workshop. To learn more, visit www.vsfergus.com Slow Travel Tours is an affiliation of small-group tour operators who offer personalized trips in Italy, France and other European countries.