Our Holidays

Our holidays have been established to inspire our visitors by using many techniques: listening, talking, observing, peaceful pondering and action.

Each person will discover and improve their creative dreams and, through constructive discussion feed their abilities and burst with inspiration.

If you wish we can help you build plans for your next steps in creativity, to push your boundaries, and discuss any problems you may encounter in order to help your creativity flourish. The peace and quiet of our perfect location encourage deep thought and proper conversation, intense study of your interests while enriching your creativity.

Savour new and wonderful experiences alongside likeminded people on our carefully organised days out.

Our holidays are for those from all walks of life and creative ability: from fine artists to makers, designers and people who have not created anything since school or ever. To come and have a wonderful time whilst discovering and exploring yours and others creativity, appreciating and achieving new ideas to continue with their positive creative way of life.

Perfect for singles.

The aim is for you to leave our holidays with new friends, a new love for colour, travel and your own type of creativity and, of course, Southern India, and Kerala.

Creative Inspirations Holiday in Kerala

Inspirational two week holiday based around art and craft visits, discussion and inspiration in Kerala, India..

Arriving the day before the course starts and leaving the day after the end of the course.

Course Date:

Holiday: 1st - 14th January 2025.

Course Costs:

Superior room including full board and days out: £1525
Standard Room including full board and days out: £1225

Flights not included.

Transfers not included but can be organised by us.

The deadline on this booking is 1st June 2024 The whole payment to be made by 1st June 2024.

I have to return unbooked rooms to the hotel on that date.

Course Tutor, Support & Admin:

Brett Manley
Administration and teaching support.

Course Information

To also include days out to a temple, extensive arts and crafts market, a visit to a famous local artist, local handloom weaving co-operative and free time to walk, explore and shop.

Location is a small beach hotel overlooking/on two beaches. Heavenly sunrises and sunsets, dolphin spotting, eagle watching, no roads, beach combing.

There will not be an art teacher. But there should be art materials there if the ants and sea air have not got them all. And our studio a bamboo building overlooking the sea and the jungle to meet.

It is really down to you if you want to paint or draw or weave or whatever creative thing makes you want to do. You can bring your own art materials if you want. And of course photograph this truly inspirational environment to inspire you later.

I will take you to a very good annual Indian art and craft fair for the day. Which also has international stands and a well known Keralan artist. We can visit a very good local artist in his interesting studio in an artists area of a local town. Visit an extraordinary local womens weaving cooperative. I will try to find a local Theyyam which is an extraordinary ancient Keralan costumed masked fire dancing celebration! And go on lovely walks on the beaches, Watch the local fishermen bringing in their catches in their canoes. Watch out for dolphins and eagles above us. Bird spotting. Fascinating plants. Mongoose and I found porcupine quills. A visit to the best textile shop ever. Spotting amazing colour combinations on buildings and the beautiful saris. And of course inspiring chatting………. We can inspire each other, develop ideas and colour combos for future projects. And breathe, relax. And of course swim or bob.

I think it will be amazing.

The food is delicious and very fresh. We can be as busy or laid back as we want.

This is not touristy India.

Accommodation with full board 2-13 Jan (11 nights)

Places are limited. Any questions, please ask.

Flights not included.

We will be recommending the nearest airport and best airlines and routes to keep your journeys as smooth as possible. This will help us with ordering and overseeing your pick up and departure taxis.

Note: If you might have problems with steep access steps please tell us and we can arrange drop off and collection at a more easily accessible flat walking route.

Should you wish to see more of India we can organise longer extension holidays with our local agent and the lovely drivers if you tell us what you want. Or do you want to go to India before the course? Much is possible. All at three levels of luxury to suit your pocket and interests.

Course Timetable

Each day we will work on a painting project between breakfast and lunch. After lunch, there will be the option to continue the morning's work, or choose to spend time on sketchbook work, drawing the neighbouring fishing boats, natural objects, and our beautiful environment. Or work on your choice of individual projects, with teaching support.

These painting and drawing projects are examples of work we'll do in our morning sessions. They can be modified or replaced with other projects, to suit individual interests and ability.

A Sense of Place.

People and Place.
Drawing people, drawing ourselves. Seeing ourselves and others.
In this morning of portrait drawing, we’ll find out about proportion and how to show volume and character using a range of tones, lines, and experimental mark making.
We’ll look at ways of showing how a change of place changes the ways we look at ourselves and others.
We will discover how the fall of light describes the form of the human head, and the texture of skin, and look at the richness of tonal contrasts in the strong natural light.

Painting People.
In our portrait painting session, we will discover ways to show personality and mood.
We’ll go over the fundamentals of colour theory, mixing secondary and tertiary colours to create a range of skin tones.
We’ll learn how to build a painting using additive layers of acrylic paint.
We will make 3 portraits, examining ways light shows form, each using different pairs of complementary colours.

Land and Sea.
We'll make a series of small collages, exploring space and composition in landscape.
How do the landscape and sea co-exist and shift relationship?
We'll look at selecting a viewpoint and recognising layers of space, and scale, depicting distance.
In a painting based on one of the collages, you will use a limited palette to establish a sense of space, using colour saturation, and mixing a range of secondary and tertiary colours.

Architecture, Landscape, Sea.
We will take what we have learned about colour mixing and apply this to a painting where we’ll learn to see the boundaries and relationships in the local built and natural environment.
New ways of mixing colours, and ideas about composition and the depiction of layers of space will be learned

Jungle Drawing.
Choosing and drawing a botanical composition based on leaves, plants, flowers, trees.
A wide range of tonal and textural mark making drawing will be used to articulate the drawing.

Into the Jungle.
By using six versions of primary colours, we will further unlock understanding of colour theory, and develop mixing knowledge .
We'll mix a wide variety of secondary and tertiary greens, and use them to make a painting using all that was learnt about texture and composition in the drawing.

Location.
Sketchbook drawing at a local place of visual interest, such as a temple or weavers' workshop.
Architecture and chiaroscuro in interior space, contrasting with the exterior environment will be our focus.

Location development.
Back in the studio, we will explore ways of working up initial sketches to develop into a painting.
Use layers of colour in additive washes, in the pointillist method, or practice new skills and techniques to explore ways of painting you’d like to learn more about.

Collaborative Still Life.
Setting up, and creating work in three parts:
1. Drawing
2. Mixed media
3. Painting
A collection of favourite objects from our locality will be selected. Viewpoint, scale, and balance of composition will be discussed. We'll make some layered experimental work with a mix of materials.

This can be a stand alone project, or can be used as inspiration to lead into developments in painting.

Sketchbook. An essential part of making art in a new location is the recording of our experience of places, people, and life as yet unfamiliar to us.

A daily sketchbook practice allows us to put down our new experiences as they occur, and is an important tool to sustain visual memory.
Prompts to encourage regular drawing, fast and slow, will be provided at regular times of day. Your sketchbook is where you will keep, and return to, all the fleeting visual ideas India will shower you with.

On our days out there will be many beautiful and fascinating scenes to record.

On the 10th day we will have an exhibition of our work in the studio. And there will be a party thrown for us by the hotel.
This timetable may change due to alterations outside our control or to improve the running order. All of the content will remain within the course.

We will always do our best to ensure you have a lovely time...