Painting Workshops in Vermont: A Creative Escape in the Green Mountains

The Landgrove has been hosting painting workshops and art retreats in southern Vermont for more than 15 years, bringing artists together for multi-day workshops with accomplished instructors from across the country.

Artists stay at our historic Vermont inn, work in our 1,500-square-foot post-and-beam Studio, and share meals throughout their stay. With lodging, meals, instruction and studio space all in one place, the focus stays where it should: on making art, learning, and spending time with other artists.

Why Vermont Is Made for Artists

Southern Vermont gives artists plenty to work with. The landscape around Landgrove, Weston, Peru, Londonderry, Manchester, Stratton and Bromley is filled with mountain views, historic villages, old barns, stone walls, forests, streams and quiet dirt roads.

The scenery also changes dramatically throughout the workshop season. Spring brings fresh greens and wildflowers, summer offers long days for plein air painting, and fall transforms the mountains and valleys.

Many workshops take advantage of that landscape, whether artists are painting outdoors or bringing ideas and observations back into the Studio.

More Than a Class: The Art Workshop Retreat

A multi-day painting workshop is different from taking a weekly class at home.

Instead of fitting art into the spaces between errands, work and everyday responsibilities, the workshop becomes the reason you are here. You can spend several consecutive days practicing, experimenting and learning without having to pack everything away after a couple of hours.

That immersion matters.

It also creates a different kind of community. Meals become conversations about paintings. Artists compare notes after class. Someone inevitably pulls out a sketchbook. Ideas continue long after the formal instruction ends.

For many participants, that combination of focused studio time, instruction and community is as important as the techniques they learn.

Painting Workshops at The Landgrove

The Studio at The Landgrove hosts painting workshops throughout much of the year, with visiting artists teaching a range of styles, subjects and mediums.

Depending on the workshop, you might find artists working in:

• watercolor

• oil

• pastel

• portraiture

• landscape

• plein air painting

• still life

• figurative work

• contemporary and traditional approaches

Some workshops spend most of their time inside our post-and-beam studio. Others head outdoors to paint the landscape around Landgrove and southern Vermont.

The instructors change throughout the season, which means the experience does too. Some workshops concentrate heavily on technique and demonstration. Others emphasize observation, composition, color, looseness or developing a more individual artistic voice.

That variety is intentional. There isn’t one correct way to paint—and there shouldn’t be only one kind of painting workshop.

A Studio in the Vermont Mountains

Our approximately 1,500-square-foot post-and-beam Studio sits on the grounds of The Landgrove and is designed around the needs of working artists.

But one of the biggest advantages has nothing to do with the building itself.

When class ends, you don’t have to get into a car and drive back to a hotel.

The Studio, inn and restaurant are all here at The Landgrove.

That means your morning can begin with breakfast at the inn, followed by a short walk to the Studio. After a day of painting, you can put down your brushes, head back to your room, meet other participants for a drink, and gather around the table for dinner.

It turns a painting class into an art retreat.

Stay, Paint and Eat in One Place

Creative work takes energy. We think artists should be able to spend that energy on painting rather than logistics.

Workshop stays at The Landgrove combine lodging, meals and studio access in one place. Participants stay at our historic Vermont inn and share meals during their workshop, creating a rhythm that feels more like a retreat than a conference.

Breakfast starts the day. Lunch provides a break from the easel. Dinner gives everyone a chance to relax and talk about what happened in the Studio—or about something entirely unrelated to painting.

Those shared meals have been part of the workshop experience here for years.

People often arrive knowing only the instructor.

A few days later, the dining room can sound like a gathering of old friends.

Do You Need to Be an Experienced Artist?

Not necessarily.

Every instructor establishes their own expectations, so some workshops are best suited to experienced painters while others welcome a broad range of skill levels.

What matters most is finding a workshop that fits where you are.

If you are newer to painting, several uninterrupted days with an instructor can help you build confidence quickly. If you are an experienced artist, a workshop can provide something equally valuable: new techniques, fresh perspective and permission to experiment outside your usual habits.

You don’t have to come to Vermont to produce a masterpiece.

You can come because you want to become a better painter.

Come With a Friend—or Come Alone

Many artists attend workshops by themselves.

That can feel intimidating before the trip, but workshops naturally create community. Everyone arrives with at least one thing in common: they chose to spend several days making art.

Meals are shared. Studio space is shared. Conversations happen easily.

Others make a workshop part of a trip with a friend or partner. While one person paints, a non-painting companion can explore southern Vermont, visit nearby towns, hike, shop, read at the inn or simply enjoy a few quiet days in the mountains.

Make It a Vermont Getaway

A painting workshop doesn’t have to be the only reason to visit.

The Landgrove is tucked into the mountains of southern Vermont, within easy reach of Weston, Manchester, Londonderry, Peru, Stratton Mountain and Bromley Mountain.

Depending on the season, an extra day or two might include hiking, scenic drives, antique shops, galleries, small-town wandering or a visit to the Vermont Country Store in Weston.

Fall brings the landscape everyone expects from Vermont, but artists know the secret: there is something worth painting here in every season.

Find Your Next Vermont Painting Workshop

The best creative retreats give you something that can be surprisingly difficult to find in everyday life: time to pay attention.

Time to study a landscape.

Time to try something that doesn’t work.

Time to learn from an artist you admire.

Time to sit around a dinner table with people who spent their day doing exactly what you did.

And then, the next morning, you get to walk back into the Studio and begin again.

If that sounds like your kind of Vermont getaway, explore the upcoming painting workshops and artist retreats at The Landgrove and find the one that makes you want to pack your brushes.