Samantha Williams Chapelsky Workshop 2025

I hope to experience/ achieve:   

I hope to see some very romantic French landscapes (water scenes, gardens) with students painting both on-site and in the studio. I would provide demos each day as well as one one-on-one assistance to artists on-site or in the studio.  

 Painting style / How I teach   

I would like to offer a few in studio sessions on landscape simplification, color practice and texture practise with the students and then encourage artists to paint, sketch and interpret the scenes we visit with this knowledge.  

My techniques I will specifically cover:  

  • How to simplify the view 
  • The colors of France  
  • Adding in some texture for effect 
  • Texture tools 
  • The practice of many studies   
Also as part of my retreat experience, I will be providing the acrylic paints for the students so this is an added bonus!

Plein Air & Studio Painting

Delicious Homemade Dinners

Daily Excursions

To Beautiful Locations

About Samantha

Samantha completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Alberta with a major in painting and art history. 

Samantha’s work is known for its impressionistic and gestural interpretations of natural spaces- often using bold textures and marks to create a semi abstract interpretation of space. She excels in simplification of natural landscapes. Her work is collected across North America, and she is currently represented in 4 commercial art galleries.  

As an international instructor in acrylic paints, Samantha has worked with artists across the globe to capture a unique essence of a landscape by using textures and gestural paint applications. Samantha’s retreats teaching compositional structure at its basic form and encourages artists to express the feeling of a space of landscape by using color, tone and textures to create the most emotional impact.  

This retreat in France will be an experience like no other. Paint alongside fellow artists from around the globe and capture the French countryside. Artists will be painting on site or “en plein air” as well as in the studio space. Daily demos will be done as well as one on one mentorship to truly ensure each artists captures the French landscape in their own voice.  

“I produce large scale abstracted landscapes with a focus on the materiality of the paint to allude to emotion and feeling within the natural space. I reference landscapes from across North America and create these works with brooms, palette knives and liters of paint on birch panels. My work has unique finishes and sheens varying from shiny to matte to indicate an intuitive feeling of a geographical element in the landscape.“

Some Excursion Locations

Excursions may include but are not limited to the following

Rocamadour

Part of the Camino Trail. Historical & religious significance. Breathtaking village perched on a cliff.

Sarlat

One of the most well preserved medieval towns in France. Amazing market with local produce.

Beynac Castle

Home of Richard the Lionheart, perfect for a picnic by the river and plein air painting in the shade.

Saint Cirq Lapopie

One of the most beautiful villages in France. Incredibly picturesque. Perfect for shopping & painting.

Gallery

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