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WATERCOLOURISTS RETREAT

Like to practice or refine your watercolour painting skills in a setting that inspires a natural muse? Let our art teacher – a practicing artist and art lecturer at a university in Chengdu – lead you on a watercolour painting and coaching trip to small villages in a variety of settings in the mountains of Sichuan. The art teacher we use has been painting a range of places in Sichuan – natural, cultural, historical, or just daily life – for thirty years, and he’s intimately familiar with the best locations in the province (Sichuan province is as large as Spain).

The trip will mostly take us to small villages nestled in lush mountains. There are three different areas that are considered the best overall milieus by the art instructor, and these three areas are the following: 

Ya’an villages and other points south

Gateway to hamlets scattered in rich subtropical mountains, Shangli is a village of wooden houses and traditional roofs hundreds of years old. The village is surrounded by gurgling streams, which are channelled throughout its alleyways, designed as such so that in the old times each household would have fresh water running outside the house. Elegant stone arched bridges span the streams, connecting the village to the world beyond. The old administrative building, now open as a historic house museum, is resplendent with carvings. The town square has an opera house hundreds of years old, and the street bustle is old and new – the town’s inhabitants scurrying through the streets to their fields, eateries doing a brisk trade in local specialities (such as corn bread), and weekend trippers from Chengdu settling down in restaurants to play mahjong all day. And once you tire of Shangli, there are many other smaller peasant’s hamlets scattered in the area – these have farmhouses ensconced among spurts of bamboo, tapestries of fields and open-channel irrigation system, and rural scenery that can keep you painting busily for days on end if you like. The imagery is all quaint and timeless – a perfect playground for watercolourists.

Other than Shangli and other villages in Ya’an, there are also many other villages in the south of Chengdu that make excellent destinations for watercolourists. Where we go depends on how far out you would like to go in search of unadulterated authenticity. Different villages have slightly different character depending on the setting and the inhabitants – there are various ethnic groups, like the Li people, that are scattered in south Sichuan. Some villages have limited tourism, others remain almost totally isolated. 

Sichuan basin villages

There are various villages within remarkably short distance from Chengdu in the Sichuan basin that also make excellent locales for watercolourists. One of these is the New Year painting village, the place that gave rise to one of China’s top four subgenres of the so-called “New Year Paintings” – they are called as such because traditionally people made the paintings during new year period. It’s a village of charming, old-style farmhouses houses covered by white stucco, and on the exteriors of the houses there are the famous “new year paintings”. The folk paintings depict children doing folksy everyday things such as harvesting or fishing, and yet they have clever symbolism – they symbolise virtues such as happiness, bounty, harmony, prosperity, humbleness, and so on. The village is surrounded by agricultural land, and the area is renowned for its orchards of pears, peaches, loquat, and plantations of tea. In the same area, it is also possible to visit an small village in the hills that’s full of atmospheric farmhouses built of rammed earth, and paint the peasants going about their everyday life and toiling in their fields.

Qiang Tibetan villages

The Tibetan-Qiang villages along the Mingjiang River valley are a great playground for watercolourists. One of our favourite villages in this area is Sergu, a tight-knit village of alleyways hemmed in by stone houses rising three stories high. The village is situated at the outer mouth of a valley in high and steep rocky mountains. There are endless subjects and angles for watercolourists here: the alleyways, the unique farmhouses, architectural features, outlandishly dressed inhabitants (they wear colourful costumes), Buddhist decorative and religious features such as prayer flags and household shrines, and the inhabitants engage in a variety of quaint customs that make ideal subjects. You can also paint the peasants toiling in their fields in their traditional way. There are also many other Qiang and Tibetan villages in the region, and any of these can be great places to paint. Some villages, for example, have the famous ancient turrets that people formerly build as places to lock themselves in during times of war or raids by bandits; these towers now make great unique features among the houses, fields, or even on high ridges.

Customise Your Trip

The three broad areas mentioned above are our favoured locales for watercolourists. But the number of locations or destination we can take you to is endless. Our watercolourists’ trips are customizable each time – we do not publish a default or suggested itinerary on this page. The trips are open for people across all ranges of proficiency in painting watercolours. The art teacher is experienced and professional, and he can adjust the level of instruction according to the level and desire of each particular participant or group.

To begin customising your watercolourists’ trip, please consider and tell us about the following choices:

• What’s your painting proficiency, and required level and detail of instruction;
• Length of travelling or participation, and season of travel;
• Destinations you would like to go to – choose from the three broad destinations mentioned above, or suggest your own – and how far out you would like to go in search of outlandishly old places to paint, or how close to civilization you would like to paint;
• Level of luxury required when it comes to accommodation and eating, especially whether you prefer comfy hotel rooms or whether you would like guesthouses or homestays.

Once you let us know the parameters of the tour and level of instruction that suits you, write to us and we will collaborate closely with you to create a tour that’s good for your particular requirements. 

Start & Finish: Chengdu

Price and Inclusions: No price is published for this tour, as it varies widely for each participant or group of participants. The trip starts and finishes in Chengdu; the price would be all-inclusive – all painting paraphernalia (unless you have yours with you), food, accommodation, and transport are included.

Crew & Vehicle: Vehicles are normally seven-seater vans for groups of up to four participants (it can be an SUV for one or two participants only), and then 10-seat or 17-seat mini bus for larger groups. The crew consists of driver, art teacher (who doubles as a tour leader), and guide/interpreter (in the case of small groups, the art teacher or guide will be able to drive). You can determine the level of luxury in accommodation according to your taste and budget. Experienced Watercolourists: If you already have a high level of competence, then you can treat the instructor as an equal, spending some time painting together and learning from one another. Or you could also do this trip without an instructor, which will of course be cheaper. Instructor: The instructor is Zhang Zhao Fang, an artist who paints oil on canvas as well as watercolour on sketch paper for various clients. He supplements his income by teaching at an art college in Chengdu and also to private students at his studio. Zhang doesn’t have a website that we can link to here; examples of his work can be sent to interested participants on request.